A
criminal court may impose a "mandate" as part of a
legal process on a person accused of a
crime consisting of an obligation to engage in certain conditions or activities in exchange for suspension or reduction in penalty; such as, conditions of
probation,
conditional discharges, or other conditional sentences. For example, a
defendant convicted of
driving while intoxicated or
drug possession may be mandated to engage in
alcoholism or
substance abuse rehabilitation. The term is paradoxical because acceptance of the "mandate" is a voluntary act by the defendant, who also has the option of serving what would most generally (though the relative weight is a matter determined by the individual's perspective and readiness to change) be viewed as a harsher alternative, such as
incarceration. In this sense, the mandate is not truly
mandatory, but is instead a type of
legal fiction wherein the court assumes an illusion of power which, in actuality, is constrained by the defendant's
free will.