Release on Parole: Current Problems of Legal Regulation and Solution Ways
Garibyan K.K. Release on parole: current problems of legal regulation and solution ways. Penitentiary Science, 2026, vol. 20, no. 1 (73), pp. 69–77. doi 10.46741/2686- 9764.2026.73.1.009.
the article is devoted to comprehensive analysis of the institution of parole as a key tool for individualizing criminal punishment and achieving goals of correction, rehabilitation of convicts and prevention of recidivism. Purpose: to identify problems of legal regulation and enforcement of the institution of parole in the context of modern criminal policy, as well as to substantiate proposals for its improvement, taking into account foreign experience. Methods: formal legal, comparative legal and statistical analysis; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; method of interpretation of legal norms. Results: based on the analysis of the dynamics of satisfying applications for parole in 2001–2024, as well as specific examples from judicial practice, there is a tendency to tighten the requirements for convicts when deciding on parole, taking into account the criteria of stability of behavior, disciplinary penalties and compensation for damages. Particular attention is paid to a lack of uniform, clearly formulated criteria for assessing the degree of correction of a convicted person, as well as the “sufficiency” of partial compensation for damage caused by a crime for a positive solution to the issue under consideration. Conclusion: the legislative consolidation of the main and additional criteria is proposed, taking into account the positive experience of using the point system for assessing the behavior of convicts while serving their sentences in the People.s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. Taking into account the positive experience of applying the institution of parole in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the author discusses an issue of the expediency of differentiating terms of repeated application of this measure in relation to persons whose parole has been canceled on the grounds provided for in Part 7 of Article 79 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It is concluded that a systemic reform of the institution in question is necessary, aimed at increasing the transparency and fairness of judicial decisions, developing the stimulating potential of punishment and strengthening trust in this incentive institution among society and victims.
Keywords: release on parole; criteria for the degree of correction; promotion of law-abiding behavior; compensation for the harm caused; judicial practice of applying release on parole; grounds for applying release on parole; individualization of punishment; achievement of punishment goals.
at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation]. Available at: https://stat.api-press.rf/stats/ug/t/15/s/13 (accessed June
10, 2025).
2. Seliverstov V. I., Grushin F.V., Lyadov E.V. The criminal law and penal policy in relation to parole. Vestnik Tomskogo
gosudarstvennogo universiteta = Tomsk State University Journal, 2021, no. 469, pp. 76–84. (In Russ.).
3. Summary statistical information on the state of criminal records in Russia for 2020 – 1st half of 2025. Ofitsial’nyi sait
Sudebnogo departamenta pri Verkhovnom Sude RF [Official website of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of
the Russian Federation]. Available at: https://cdep.ru/?id=79 (accessed January 19, 2026).
4. Myakhanova A.N. On the issue of criteria for parole: analysis of the point system for assessing the correction of convicts
in China. Ugolovno –ispolnitel’noe pravo = Penal Law, 2022, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 521–528. (In Russ.).
5. LONG Chang Hai, Korobeev A.I., Chuchaev A.I. The Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China: the improvement
in the process of implementation (to the 20th anniversary of its adoption. Lex Russica = Russian Law, 2018, no. 3 (136),
pp. 128–142. (In Russ.).
6. Karabanova E.N., Parfenova M.V. The right of victim to compensation of the harm caused by crime. Vestnik Akademii
General’noi prokuratury Rossiiskoi Federatsii = Bulletin of the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian
Federation, 2014, no. 2(40), pp. 87–92. (In Russ.).
7. Smorchkov A.I., Simagina N.A. Compensation for damage caused by the crime under release of parole and the interests
of the victim. Vestnik Vladimirskogo yuridicheskogo institute = Bulletin of the Vladimir Law Institute, 2018, no. 4 (49),
pp. 131–134. (In Russ.).
8. Protsenko N.Yu. Problematic issues of the application of conditional early release. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskoi
yuridicheskoi akademii = Vestnik of Saint Petersburg Juridical Academy, 2024, no. 2 (63), pp. 142–146. (In Russ.).
9. Ugolovnyi kodeks Respubliki Kazakhstan ot 3 iyulya 2014 goda [Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of July
3, 2014]. Available at: https://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=31575252&pos=1395;-58#pos= 1395;-58 (accessed
July 1, 2025).
10. Garibyan K.K. Ways to improve the formal grounds for parole from serving a sentence. In: Aktual.nye problemy teorii
i praktiki primeneniya ugolovnogo zakona: sbornik materialov XI Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf., Moskva, 15 noyabrya
2023 g. [Actual problems of theory and practice of criminal law application: collection of materials of the XI International
scientific and practical conference, Moscow, November 15, 2023]. Moscow, 2024. Pp. 93–96. (In Russ.).
