Iran uses community sentences to curb incarceration rate Tuesday, 13 July 2021 9:39 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 13 July 2021 9:39 PM ] Yousef Jalali Press TV, Tehran Iranian judges have handed creative alternatives to imprisonment for lesser included crimes. Criminals charged with misdemeanors can now do community services instead of going to jail. A movie director in Iran's province of Khorasan Razavi was sentenced to producing a documentary about the wildlife. He was convicted of poaching. Such sentences are now becoming a trend in Iran; they are called imprisonment alternative punishment or community sentencing. It is a form of punishment that a court can impose on a defendant other than a jail term. But judges in Iran have recently tapped into a new law that allows for more creative replacements for incarceration, with a focus on environment conservation activities such as tree-planting.