Justice Minister Owen Bonnici prefers community service orders to fines for minor offences, where of course the law allows, stating that persons convicted of such minor felonies would directly give back to society.

The Malta Independent approached the minister for his thoughts on the idea of increasing community service sentencing for minor offences, rather than the issuing of fines, following a discussion seen on Facebook about the matter.

“The law provides in which circumstances community service can be ordered. As a general rule, crimes which are on a smaller scale one can afford community service as a punishment. Of course there are exceptions. We are of course speaking of minor offences,” the minister said. He would like to see further adoption of such sentencing.

Asked what he thinks about community service for petty offences, rather than the issuing of a fine, he said: “In general I am in favour of the granting of community service sentences. I know there are particular Magistrates who, when given a choice, deliver these kinds of sentences. The law provides the opportunity and generally, given a choice between the granting of a fine or the granting of community service, I believe that society would improve through the granting of the latter.”

The minister was also asked whether he supported the idea of certain minor crimes having mandatory community service orders, and no option for fines or anything else. The minister said: “I generally tend to give the judiciary discretion as they are best suited to know, according to the circumstances, the best punishment to hand out as they are the professionals in the field. It could be a good opportunity to invite the judiciary to consider granting more community service orders compared to fines, or a bit of both by handing out a monetary punishment as well as community work.”

He explained that when one commits a crime, it is a crime against the whole of society. “When one is told to pay a fine, one simply makes a transaction and that’s it, but when one is ordered to do community service then that person will give something back to society to neutralise the negative effect of the crime.”

The minister also indicated that community service promotes equality, as while a fine would affect people of different wealth in disproportionate ways, community service would be more equal for all.