The community service is being practiced in the Sarajevo Canton since 2011 and since then more than 120 persons who had been convicted to prison chose to work instead.
The first verdict in which the Municipal Court in Sarajevo replaced the prison sentence with community service was submitted for execution to the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the Sarajevo Canton on November 15, 2011. Since then, the Ministry stated, more than 120 convicted persons chose this option, giving their consent for replacing the already issued prison sentence with community service in freedom.
Only during 2015, 35 verdicts of relevant courts were submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the Sarajevo Canton for competent treatment – the execution of community service. Of that number, 31 verdicts were issued by the Municipal Court in Sarajevo and four by the Municipal Court in Zenica, encompassing 37 persons whose prison sentence was replaced with community service with their consent.
Community service is an alternative criminal sanction which replaces the prison sentence for the period under one year, with the voluntary consent of the convict, with socially beneficial work for the period of at least ten days and maximum of 90 working days.
In the structure of criminal offenses committed by the persons who are executing the alternative criminal sanction, the dominating are illegal possession, use or allowing the use of narcotics, property crimes (theft, forest theft, pocket theft, fraud), offenses causing bodily harm, and domestic violence.
(Source: klix.ba)
