Conditional early release from punishment: the interpretation of the terms of application

Abstract

The subject of the research is the public relations governing the serving of the sentence by the convicted person and the exercise of the right to parole.The purpose of the article is to determine the content and formulate proposals for improving the criminal legislation and the practice of its application on the basis of established approaches to the interpretation of the conditions for the application of parole, provided for in Art. 79 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The hypothesis of the research is the legislative wording of the conditions for the application of parole, provided for by Russian Criminal Code (paragraph "g" of Part 3 of Art. 79) – “at least three-quarters of the sentence imposed for crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors, as well as for grave and especially grave crimes related to the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors” – do not have a sufficient degree of specificity and does not allow to unambiguously determine the moment of emergence of the right to parole.The methodology. General scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) as well as private scientific methods of criminal law research (formal-legal and linguistic interpretation of legal acts) – were used. The authors propose to correct the provisions of the Russian Criminal Code and to consolidate the content of the concepts used in the criminal law on the basis of the analysis of various normative legal acts, acts of judicial interpretation and provisions of the doctrine of criminal law.The main scientific results. During the analysis of the provisions of Part 3 of Art. 79 of the Russian Criminal Code, regulating the conditions for the application of parole, the authors reveal a number of inaccuracies in the provisions of the criminal law. Such inaccuracies do not allow to unambiguously determine the grounds for parole of persons who have com-mitted crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, as well as persons who have committed grave and especially grave crimes connected with the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors. The content of the prescriptions of clause "g" of Part 3 of Art. 79 of the Russian Criminal Code does not have an exact legislative basis, and the interpretation given by the judicial authorities does not always allow us to exclude the uncertainty of the concepts used.Conclusions. The contradictions were identified by the authors related to the inaccuracy of the legislative prescriptions used in determining some conditions for the application of pa-role. The authors conclude the need to amend the criminal law and formulated proposals that clarify the wording of Art. 79 of the Russian Criminal Code. Such corrections will eliminate the duality of understanding of certain conditions of parole and increase the effectiveness of law enforcement practice in this area.