Summary

The article analyzes the criminal justice policy foundations and the legal natureof the alternatives to imprisonment in Chile, by exploring the original legitimization argu-ments based on the special preventive ineffectiveness of prison sentences –especially those ofshort duration–; to current discourses based on contemporary criminal justice models, whichaim to legitimize alternatives as sanctions with rehabilitative content, which allow rational-izing the use of prison, and convey censure, constituting punitive consequences suitable forcrimes of medium to less gravity. This has necessarily gone in hand with substantial changesin its legal nature, moving from those initial foundations based on forgiveness, to the pres-ent, which seeks to recognize them the nature of punishment.