Challenges Faced by Convicts in Iran's Criminal Law
Keywords:
De-incarceration, alternatives to imprisonment, privatization, conditional release, community service.Abstract
The Iranian criminal justice system has long relied on incarceration as the primary punitive response to crime. However, practical experiences and contemporary legal and criminological insights increasingly reveal that imprisonment often fails to achieve core objectives such as offender rehabilitation, deterrence, and social protection. This article adopts an analytical-critical approach to explore the multifaceted challenges faced by convicts in Iran’s penal system. It demonstrates that imprisonment, in its current structure, not only lacks reformative effect but actively contributes to the production and reproduction of individual, social, and economic harm. Key concepts such as human dignity, individualized sentencing, the necessity of personality files, and alternative punishments are critically examined. Furthermore, the article provides a comparative analysis of global experiences with prison privatization and its implications for penal efficiency and justice. Ultimately, it argues for a transition from punitive to restorative justice models, grounded in human-centered, rehabilitative, and individualized approaches. The findings underscore the urgent need for a foundational reform of Iran’s punitive philosophy, the expansion of non-custodial measures, the institutionalization of offender profiling, and robust regulatory mechanisms—particularly if privatization initiatives are pursued. Drawing from theoretical frameworks, comparative models, and legal analyses, this study offers a comprehensive roadmap for transforming Iran’s penal policy toward a more effective and humane criminal justice system.
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