The Institution of Conditional Early Release from Serving a Sentence in the Criminal Legislation of Russia and Foreign Countries

Abstract

Introduction. Conditional early release from serving a prison sentence (hereinafter referred to as parole) refers to the important means of positively stimulating the correction of convicts and contributes to the prevention of offences and crimes – recidivism – in place of the deprivation of liberty. The article examines the domestic and foreign experience of the legal regulation of the institute of parole in order to optimise domestic criminal and penal enforcement legislation, taking into account foreign experiences. Proposals for improving the effectiveness of the use of the parole mechanism in law enforcement practice are suggested as a result of the grounds and conditions for the use of the incentive institution of parole in some countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereinafter referred to as the CIS), as well as in England, Germany, China, etc. Particular attention is paid to the problem of parole in relation to those subject to life imprisonment. Based on the study of the experience of developed foreign countries, proposals for improving this institution are made, including the adjustment of the mechanism of parole in relation to life sentences to imprisonment in Russia. Theoretical Basis. Methods. The theoretical basis of the research was Russian and foreign scientific works in the field of criminal and penal enforcement law. In particular, texts devoted to both the application of parole in general and the specifics of the application of this institution in relation to life-deprived of liberty were employed. The use of the formal legal method of research allowed the identification of the patterns of judicial practice on the use of parole in relation to those sentenced to imprisonment, and the use of the comparative legal method allowed the identification of ways to improve the institution of parole, taking into account foreign experience. Results. The article reveals the most significant problems of legal regulation of the use of parole in relation to those sentenced to imprisonment. The article analyses individual amendments and additions made to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Penal Enforcement Code of the Russian Federation, the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 21.04.2009 No. 8 (“On judicial practice of conditional early release from serving a sentence, replacement of the unserved part of the punishment with a milder type of punishment”). There is an outline of the main directions for further improvement of the institution of parole in relation to convicts. Discussion and Conclusion. Although the application of the norms of the institute of parole stimulate the law-abiding behaviour of those sentenced to imprisonment, this institution is not applied by the courts to those sentenced to life imprisonment. The author proposes to change the mechanism of parole in relation to life convicts in Russia. Specifically, the proposal is the possibility of transferring positively characterised convicts of this category after serving an appropriate term in a correctional colony (hereinafter referred to as an IC) of a “special regime” to a “strict regime” IC, and then after three years – from a “strict regime” IC to a “colony-settlement”. Conditional early release from serving such a life sentence should be applied only to those persons who were transferred to a “colony-settlement” and served at least two years of imprisonment there. Further, it is proposed to reduce the mandatory term of serving a sentence before consideration of parole in relation to those sentenced to life imprisonment from 25 to 20 years. In order to reduce recidivism among those sentenced to punishments not related to complete deprivation of liberty (as well as reducing their numbers), using the experience of legal regulation of parole in some CIS countries, a proposal is to provide for the possibility of parole in relation to those sentenced to such punishments by the application of correctional labour and restriction of liberty.