A number of convicts who were sentenced to prison terms of six months or less are expected to be put to work in communities hardest-hit by Typhoon Morakot, Ministry of Justice sources said on Sunday.

The assignment will be part of a community-service sentencing program introduced under an amendment to Article 41 of the Criminal Code in January. The program is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Under the program, convicts sentenced to terms of six months or less for petty crimes could be released on probation and allowed to do community service in lieu of fines or time behind bars.

Ministry statistics show that 1,802 inmates would be eligible to apply for early release by paying fines. If they cannot afford the fines, they could apply for community service sentencing instead, the amendment says.

The ministry estimates that about 1,000 inmates on probation will work for free in social service organizations each year.

The community service program will help alleviate problems with overcrowding in prisons, Department of Corrections Director Wu Hsien-chang (吳憲璋) said.

The total inmate population nationwide is 63,994, which is 16.51 percent, or 9,070 inmates, over capacity, Wu said. Overcrowding is most serious in prisons in Taipei, Keelung and Taoyuan, he said.

Social service groups have had mixed reactions to the community-service sentencing idea.

Wang Yu-min (王育敏), chief executive officer of the nonprofit Child Welfare League Foundation, said the group would welcome male convicts to do manual labor, such as moving cartons of toys and cleaning. The foundation would be willing to take on the inmates, as long as they were not convicted of violent crimes or sexual assault, Wang said.

The Genesis Social Welfare Foundation is not interested.

“We have enough resources to recruit volunteers, so we would be pleased to let other charity organizations have the convicts,” a foundation spokesman said.

Shihlin District Prosecutors Office spokesman Yen Nai-wei (顏迺偉) said that the community service program would not hurt public order because the eligible inmates would be screened by prosecutors before being released.

“The program is not expected to exacerbate the unemployment problem either,” said Yen, pointing out that more than 1,000 public organizations and schools nationwide have asked for a total of 1,900 inmates.

The Shihlin District Prosecutors Office, however, will only release 200 inmates into the community service program next month.