Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice not later than at its tenth session on the implementation of the present resolution. The use of prison should be strictly limited as a measure of last resort.
Prisons represent a waste of scarce resources and human potential.
The majority of prisoners who occupy them pose no actual threat to society. The overcrowding in our prisons requires positive action through, inter alia, the introduction of community service. Community service is in conformity with African traditions of dealing with offenders and with healing the damage caused by crime within the community. Furthermore, it is a positive and cost-effective measure to be preferred whenever possible to a sentence of imprisonment. Community service should be effectively implemented and supervised and involve a programme of work where the offender is required to carry out a number of hours of voluntary work for the benefit of the community in his or her own time.