Brasília, 26 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Minister of Justice, Aloysio Nunes, has created the National Program for Oversight of Non-Custodial Sentencing (Programa Nacional de Apoio e Acompanhamento de Penas e Medidas Alternativas) with the objective of stimulating the use of them in states. Under the program a management standard will be set up on sentencing option use.

After the creation of the program, Nunes declared that non-custodial sentencing has existed in Brazil for a long time,and pointed out that it is not for "bandits," but for crimes punished by up to 4 years in prison committed by persons who are not recidivists. (AB)