Crime in Sante Reze
Crime in Sante Reze is defined by multiple bodies of law and statutes which are enforced by the Kabinyun military police, provincial courts, and in some cases by the Kondadere.
Legal proceedings
Corruption
The legal framework in Sante Reze is generally seen as capable of fighting againt corruption, with as many as 6 out of 10 people having faith in the law enforcement institutions. However, there are several high profile issues including the use of fines and how the income assessment is used. Members of the Houses Paramount often have very little taxable income of their own, and so are often are sentenced with minimal fines that can at times be far less than someone from lower or middle class background would be given in the same situation. This is often seen by those outside of the main houses as working as intended rather than being an unfortunate side effect.
Criminal sanctions
Youth crimes
Crimes committed by minors (14 and younger) are not prosecuted or punished in the same fashion as with adults. The default sentence is electronic tagging with mandatory check-ins, provided that the court does not see the need to intervene directly in the youth's home life (i.e. moving the minor to a group home, or the home of another family member). Restriction of movement is typically included in home interventions. It is also possible for the a youth's guardians to be charged with crimes related to those of their wards, including aiding and abetting, criminal negligence, and in extreme cases may be charged as the principal in a minor's crimes.
Monetary damages
For minor offenses, notably for intentional property damage, the punishment is a fine. For damages below $500, the full cost of damage is assessed, while for greater damages the fine is assessed against the income of the offender with a minimum of $500. Those who believe themselves unable to pay the fine may request alternative sentencing at the court's discretion.
There is a long history of financial restitution in Rezese culture, and in many of the Oxidentali tribal cultures before it. The imposition of a tax to repay harm done to the community was common, whether that was in the form of some kind of currency or produced goods.
Community service
The role of community service is typically as an additive to other sanctions rather than a single sentencing of its own, though it has been known to happen that the service replaces fines in instances where an offender has committed several recent acts of property damage and/or the cost of the damage is not deemed sufficient as a fine (eg. littering or public urination may cost less than $20 to clean, and the administration of the fine and court costs exceed the fine itself). Community service can vary between an assigned number of hours to be completed at-will within a specified period of time for light offenses, to mandatory assigned shifts of as much as 50 hours per week for severe or many times repeated offenses.
Alongside compensatory damages, the requirement to serve wronged individuals or the community is one of the most traditional Rezese punishments. Historically, service was often used as a primary sentence alongside monetary damages, typically used exclusively of each other or with the choice between one of the two.
This use of service as a criminal punishment led directly into the evolution of Rezese slavery.
Movement restriction and electronic tagging
There are multiple forms of movement restriction including full house arrest (cannot leave boundaries of domicile), several levels of restricted zones of movement (home and work only, distance radius), and restrictions on vehicle use. The type and severity of the punishment depends on the crime or crimes committed. This method is the most common punishment in Sante Reze especially since the advent of electronic tagging.
All offenders sentenced to movement restriction are electronically tagged typically with ankle cuffs which operate using both GPS and radio frequency technology. Additional forms of electronic monitoring may also be imposed, including phone cloning or spyware installation, social media tracking, mandatory electronic check-in systems, and keylogging software on personal computers. In harsher circumstances such as full house arrest with a high risk of attempted escape, cameras are installed in the domicile and electronic locks added to main points of egress which can only be opened by enforcement and emergency personnel.
Additional methods of enforcement include regular check-ins with a case officer from the local civic government office, the loss of license to operate motor vehicles, the loss of rights to public transit, sweat alcohol monitoring tags, and other systems.
Corporal punishment
The use of corporal punishment was widely used with offenders throughout most of history, dating from before the creation of the kingdom of Sante Reze. It was for many centuries the primary punishment for criminals, and during the Ecclesiastical Republic was the sole criminal sanction short of execution of which the Ecclesiastical Republic likewise made wide use.
School corporal punishment was outlawed in 1922, and the use of judicial corporal punishment waned as the system began to focus on movement restrictions before being largely retired in 1965. Judicial corporal punishment is still in use amongst tribal societies in the Ucayare, though these criminal proceedings are rarely recorded with the court system of Sante Reze.
Prison and work detail
In extreme circumstances including homicide, severe embezzlement, and treason, Sante Reze maintains a prison facility in the northern Paraguasurun Islands built to hold as many as 7,500 prisoners. This facility averages approximately 15% capacity for long-term holds, but is often used for other purposes which may take up entire additional wings of the prison campus. The Abe Ijinne installation was founded in 1714 to house exiles, and has undergone multiple expansions and modernization updates.
Work details are intended to cover the costs of incarceration, and include prisoners fulfilling janitorial, cafeteria, and other low-level maintenance functions. If their shift pay exceeds the cost of their food, housing, and any medical treatment, then they are paid the extra in an account that can be withdrawn from after release. Prisoners may have their pay docked or be barred from work as further punishment for any additional crimes committed while incarcerated.
Capital punishment
The death penalty for crimes was outlawed with the founding of the Noble Republic in 1702. Due to the excesses of the Ecclesiatical Republic with regard to executions, public and private, the first Criminal Charter of Sante Reze explicitly barred execution as a valid punishment for any crime.
Sante Reze refuses to extradite criminals to any country where it is possible that the death penalty be levied against them for their crime, with the exception of the Mutul as prisoners in the Mutul volunteer for execution over life imprisonment.
Incarceration rate
Due to the low use of prisons and variety of other options available, the incarceration rate in Sante Reze appears relatively low with an annual average of approximately 1,145 people held in long-term facilities. When including those held as wards of the state for mental illness, as well as home detentions (both personal and group homes), this number increases to an average of 129,360 individuals per year sentenced to a loss of freedom of movement in some form, or 112 per 100,000 residents. The total figure is the lowest it has been since 2003 when the average throughout the year was 130,174.
Extradition
Sante Reze rarely requests extradition for offenders who have fled the country. In most cases, self-imposed exile is seen as a punishment in and of itself. When the state does request extradition it is typically when a crime has included vast amounts of money which the state or domestic financial institutions were not able to freeze from leaving the country with the fleeing offender.
While Sante Reze also considers its own laws as superceding those of any other country, it will extradite if crimes committed elsewhere are drastically worse than those which may have been committed domestically, if any. If foreign crimes are seen as insufficiently damaging over domestic, it applies its own sanctions (especially fines, community service, and prison) first and foremost before considering extradition back to another country. Additionally, Sante Reze will not extradite if a criminal could be involuntarily sentenced to death for their crime. It may, however, negotiate on the offender's behalf for a lighter sentence rather than simply refusing requests.