Alternative Punishments to Imprisonment and Their Effect on Reducing the Criminal Population in Prisons

In the present article, which is a review study, the alternative punishments to imprisonment and their impact on reducing the criminal population in prisons are discussed. Alternative punishment to imprisonment was created under the influence of the ideas of different schools and in line with the many criticisms leveled at the punishment of imprisonment. Imprisonment as a punishment is not only ineffective for the goals of correction and rehabilitation, but also leads to a lot of adverse consequences and to the severance of the prisoner from normal life, family, work and those around him/her. In addition to the convicts, this punishment is also imposed on their relatives and friends, especially their spouse and children. Accordingly, today, criminal justice systems have shifted from pure punishment-orientation to new approaches to correction and rehabilitation and social reconstruction of criminals. Furthermore, new perspectives on criminology and criminal sociology are based on the premise that the use of prison should be considered only as a last resort against dangerous criminals. Accordingly, today, alternatives to imprisonment towards the new correctional-rehabilitation movement have been considered by scholars, but the radical and fundamental realization of this goal requires a shift in the attitude of the judiciary and, of course, a shift in society's culture to the fact that punishments that deprive people from their liberty have failed due to their many harms, and that the application of alternatives (modern social punishments) is the best way to apply targeted correctional-rehabilitation punishments.