Improving Disciplinary Measures against Persons Sentenced to Restriction of Liberty and suspended sentence
Babayan S.L., Kohman D.V. Improving disciplinary measures against persons sentenced to restriction of liberty and suspended sentence. Penitentiary Science, 2023, vol. 17, no. 1 (61), pp. 39–51. doi: 10.46741/2686-9764.2023.61.1.005
The article analyzes problems of stimulating law-abiding behavior of persons sentenced to restriction of liberty and a suspended sentence. The specifics of disciplinary measures enshrined in the norms of two similar legal institutions, such as a suspended sentence and restriction of freedom, are consistently disclosed. Many convicts continue to violate the established procedure for serving their sentences and evade the duties imposed on them by the court. Every year, statistics show an almost constant number of persons removed from the register of criminal executive inspections in connection with the commission of a repeat crime. The situation is complicated by the fact that this is happening against the background of an ever-increasing number of persons sentenced to punishments and measures of a criminal nature not related to deprivation of liberty. The analysis of the practice to implement norms of the current penal legislation shows that the staff of criminal executive inspections do not always effectively apply incentives for law-abiding behavior of convicts, focusing on penalties. The need to change the system of measures to stimulate law-abiding behavior in legal institutions of restriction of liberty and a suspended sentence is considered through the prism of activities of foreign probation services, as well as psychological reactions of persons registered with criminal executive inspections. What is more, the article presents the point of view of practitioners whose professional activity is directly related to the execution of punishment in the form of restriction of freedom and monitoring of the conditionally sentenced. Purpose: to substantiate the need to improve means of stimulating law-abiding behavior applied to prisoners sentenced to restriction of liberty and a suspended sentence, as well as to formulate specific proposals for their development. Methods: comparative analysis; methods of deconstruction and appercipation; survey conducted by means of questionnaires with open questions; formal-logical methods. Conclusion: recommendations have been developed to improve measures aimed at stimulating law-abiding behavior of persons sentenced to restriction of liberty and a suspended sentence. First, Part 1 of Article 74 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should fix the norm that in case a person serving a suspended sentence is assigned an additional type of punishment and before the expiration of the probation period he/she has corrected his/her behavior and has already served at least half of the term of the additional type of punishment, then the court on the recommendation of the body exercising control over his/her behavior can decide to cancel a suspended sentence and remove the criminal record from the convicted person with exemption from an additional type of punishment. At the same time, it will be necessary to amend Article 86 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to eliminate contradictions related to the current order of repayment of the criminal record of a person sentenced to a milder punishment than imprisonment. Second, it is necessary to establish the opportunity for convicts serving restriction of liberty to be released on parole in the legislation. Third, it is advisable to supplement Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by the provision that the convicted person is recognized as maliciously evading from serving a sentence in the form of restriction of freedom by the resolution of the inspection head and the imposed penalty in the form of an official warning remains relevant until all penalties are lifted or extinguished.
Keywords: Punishment; incentives; penalty; probation; probation period; disciplinary impact
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