PARLIAMENT – A draft Penal Code now in the pipeline would compel more culprits serve their punishments under the Travaux d’Interet General (TIG) — a sort of community service in lieu of imprisonment.

Since its inception, TIG has been performed by prisoners found guilty of genocide crimes, and has registered tremendous successes in producing community oriented services.

Now that the country’s judiciary is under course reforming the over 30-year-old Penal Code, the TIG punishments are likely to befall on even those who are found guilty of crimes other than genocide related ones.

Parliament on Tuesday started open discussions and completed endorsing close to 100 of more than 600 articles that make up the new draft Penal Code, among which article 46 calls for the extension of community works as a punishment to culprits of all crimes.

The chairperson of the Political Affairs Committee in the Lower Chamber, Bernadette Kanzayire told her fellow lawmakers that the move is intended to benefit national interests since the prisoner is not going to remain seated in jail but managed in such a way that he contributes to the community’s development.

Her remarks were also supported by Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama, who maintained that this may come as either an alternative to serving punishment in prison or an addition to other punishments pronounced against the offender.

"This is a way of reducing congestion in prisons, cost of living and help in building strong community development,” Karugarama commented after the session, explaining that a strong exception will be made to those found guilty of embezzlement of public funds.

According to the new Penal Code, these will first have to pay back the amount embezzled on top of facing justice.

The system governing TIG servers  stipulates that they first serve half of their sentence in confinement while another half is spent in community works that have so far been ranging from roads construction to building terraces for agricultural purposes.

The draft code that has been under the scrutiny parliamentary committee, was initiated after a special team from the Ministry of Justice carried out a survey among citizens in late 2006, only to find out that the majority of Rwandans wanted the Penal Code revised.

Parliament will resume further discussions on Thursday July 30.

Ends