Competition of criminal penalties and other measures of penal liability

The totality of the system of penalties and the system of other penal measures forms a unified system of penal measures. Criminal penalties and other penal measures are always interconnected, interacting and competing with each other. First of all, there is a competition of the norms regulating criminal penalties in the form of restriction of freedom and probation, which has an unclear legal nature. The legal right restrictions imposed on probationers by the court are punitive in nature. However, from the formal legal point of view, neither the legislator nor the judge considers probation as a form of penalty. The essence and content of probation and restriction of freedom are mostly similar; therefore probation should not substitute real penalties. Since under the current legislation, it is not a fact of conviction, but the execution of punishment that is suspended, it is advisable to change the content of probation and include it into "Other Penal Measures" chapter of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in order to eliminate competition between the restriction of freedom and probation. There is also the competition of the norms regulating forced labour and placing a convict into a penal settlement (colony). Although the forced labour ceases to be suspended to become a really executed punishment, it should be noted the increase in the number of prisoners held in penal colonies, which means that at the legislative level there is a penalty competing with placing in a penal settlement. However, in practice, forced labour does not compete with exile to a penal colony, presumably due to the insufficient number of correctional centres and lack of practical experience in applying forced labour. As far as the conditions of detention in the penal colony is similar to those in a correctional centre, it is more expedient to combine them into one type of criminal penalty - forced labour in a penal colony.

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