Organizational and Legal Aspects of the Execution of Life and Long-Term Imprisonment
Zubkova V.I., Nagornykh R.V. Organizational and legal aspects of the execution of life and long-term imprisonment. Penitentiary Science, 2025, vol. 19, no. 1 (69), pp. 74–81. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2025.69.1.009
The article is devoted to current problems of legal regulation and organization of the execution of life and long-term imprisonment in modern conditions. The purpose of the article is to highlight organizational and legal aspects of the execution of life and long-term imprisonment in the context of tightening the state’s punitive policy against persons who have committed qualified crimes of a terrorist nature or organized or participated in armed rebellion. The methodological basis of the work is formed by general and private scientific (historical-legal, comparative-legal, descriptive, content analysis) methods of legal reality cognition. In this regard, the article substantiates the position that legal regulation in the considered segment of the state’s punitive policy should provide for an appropriate organizational and legal mechanism for the initial review of sentences no later than twenty-five years after their imposition and regular reviews thereafter. At the same time, legislative criteria and conditions related to the review of sentences should be sufficiently clear and definite, and those sentenced to life imprisonment themselves should have the right to know from the very beginning of serving their sentence what they need to do for a possible decision on their release and under what conditions such release is possible. Scientific and practical significance of the work consists in substantiating the provisions that improving legal regulation of the organization of the execution of life and long-term imprisonment is possible by applying the following approach: convicts serve their sentences in strict conditions for the first ten years of imprisonment and perhaps in single special institutions, and then, depending on their behavior, they can be transferred to less restrictive conditions and to other institutions, or are left in special institutions in case of malicious violations of the established procedure for serving a sentence. Such an approach will require solving related organizational and legal tasks in the field of developing a network of special institutions, personnel training and providing other resource support for their functioning.
Keywords: Legal regulation; organization; life imprisonment; long-term imprisonment; penal system
2. Ivanchin A.V. Frameworks of the composition of crime in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and issues of its constructs. Yuridicheskaya nauka = Legal Science, 2014, no. 2, pp. 103–110. (In Russ.).
3. Spisok prigovorennykh k pozhiznennomu zaklyucheniyu v Rossii [List of those sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia]. Available at: https://traditio.wiki/Spisok_prigovorennykh_k_pozhiznennomu_zaklyucheniyu_v_Rossii (accessed January 21, 2025).
4. O sovershenii kievskim rezhimom prestuplenii terroristicheskoi na-pravlennosti (doklad Ministerstva inostrannykh del Rossiiskoi Federatsii) [On the commission of terrorist crimes by the Kiev regime (report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation)]. Available at: ttps://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/doklady/1969025/ (accessed February 6, 2025).
5. Soldat VSU poluchil pozhiznennyi srok za rasstrel trekh plennykh pod Kurskom [An VSU soldier received a life sentence for shooting three prisoners near Kursk]. Available at: https://tass.ru/proisshestviya/23185173?ysclid=m7g159vqcx556846553 (accessed February 19, 2025).
6. Zubkov A.I. Karatel’naya politika Rossii na rubezhe tysyacheletii: V svyazi s proektom federal’nogo zakona “O vnesenii v nekotorye zakonodatel’nye akty Rossiiskoi Federatsii izmenenii i dopolnenii po voprosam ugolovno-ispolnitel’noi sistemy” [The punitive policy of Russia at the turn of the millennium: in connection with the draft federal law “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on Issues of the Penal System]. Moscow, 2000. 83 p.
7. Grushin F.V., Zubkova V.I. Life imprisonment: legislative regulation and practical implementation. Vestnik Sibirskogo yuridicheskogo instituta MVD Rossii = Vestnik of Siberian Law Institute of the MIA of Russia, 2024, no. 4 (57), pp. 9–14. (In Russ.).
8. Nagornykh R.V. Administrative activity of bodies and institutions of the penal system: concept, nature and content. Penitentsiarnaya nauka = Penitentiary Science, 2020, vol. 14, no. 2 (50), pp. 251–258. (In Russ.).
9. U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum – ADX Supermax. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/adx-supermaxoverview-972970 (accessed February 9, 2025).
10. AI will allow the perpetrator to experience victims’ emotions as punishment. RBK Life = RBC Life. Available at: https://
www.rbc.ru/life/news/667ad0169a79471fce952697?ysclid=m6xgtc3m2m399820207 (In Russ.). (Accessed February 9, 2025).
11. Nagornykh R.V., Vasil’eva Ya.V., Mel’nikova N.A. Modernization issues of staffing the penal enforcement system in the context of formation of an administrative constitutionalism doctrine in modern Russia. Penitentsiarnaya nauka = Penitentiary Science, 2021, vol. 15, no. 4 (56), pp. 791–801. (In Russ.).
12. Zelenskaya O.O. Features of the appointment and execution of life imprisonment: experience of foreign countries. Ius publicum et privatum: setevoi nauchno-prakticheskii zhurnal chastnogo i publichnogo prava = Ius publicum et privatum: online scientific and practical journal of private and public law, 2021, no. 2 (12), pp. 76–80. (In Russ.).
13. Seliverstov V.I. Criminal and criminal enforcement policy in the sphere of enforcement of imprisonment: novations in 2015. Lex Russica = Russian Law,. 2016, no. 9 (118), pp. 188–204. (In Russ.).
14. Zubkova V.I. Some problematic issues of life imprisonment in Russian legislation. Ugolovno-ispolnitel’noe pravo = Penal Law, 2019, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 26–29. (In Russ.).
15. Kazakova E.N. Parole when serving life imprisonment: problems and ways to solve them. Vestnik Vladimirskogo yuridicheskogo institute = Bulletin of the Vladimir Law Institute, 2008, no. 3 (8), pp. 40–49. (In Russ.).
16. Zubkov A.I. Social purpose and normative consolidation of long sentences of imprisonment (theses of the speech). In: Lishenie svobody na dlitel’nyi srok i pozhiznenno: normotvorchestvo, pravoprimenenie, pravosoznanie: materialy nauch.-prakt. konf. (17–18 aprelya 2002 g., Vologda) [Long-term and life imprisonment: rulemaking, law enforcement, legal awareness: materials of scientific and practical conference (April 17–18, 2002, Vologda]. Vologda, 2002. Pp. 38–41. (In Russ.).
17. Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Hu-man Rights Service. Life imprisonment. Thematic factsheet. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/thematic-factsheet-life-imprisonment-eng/1680ab3b93 (accessed February 9, 2025).
