Legal status of the convicts serving their non-custodial sentences

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Non-Custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules) ratified by the Resolution 45/110 of the UN General Assembly 14.12.1990 state that in order to provide greater flexibility consistent with the nature and gravity of the offence, with the personality and background of the offender and with the protection of society and to avoid unnecessary use of imprisonment, the criminal justice system should provide a wide range of non-custodial measures, from pre-trial to post-sentencing dispositions. The effective use of non-custodial penalties to those who committed minor offences or medium-gravity crimes should protect the public against criminals, decrease the level of criminalization, disintegrate the criminal community and decrease the population in prisons. Thus, the problem of noncustodial penalties from the viewpoint of guaranteeing the legal rights, freedoms and personal interests is a current one. The content of the legal status of convicts covers the complex of the following elements: their specific duties, rights, freedoms and legal interests typical for the imposed punishment or any measure of a criminal legal character. Thus, the legal status of those sentenced to non-custodial penalties is stipulated by the order and conditions of serving the sentence. It is worth noting, that both those convicted to deprivation of liberty and those to non-custodial punishments are subject to some legal restrictions of a greater or lesser degree. However, in some cases including the evasion from serving the punishment or violation of the order and conditions of serving the punishment, the amount of legal restrictions can be broadened and, in case of malicious evasion from serving the punishment, the court can impose the whole range of legal restrictions on the advice of the probation department. When analyzing the norms of Russian criminal and penal legislation that determine the specificity of the legal status of convicts, we can state that some restrictions of the rights and freedoms (including the constitutional ones) of citizens can serve as one of the elements of chastisement. Having analyzed the detailed regulation of the legal status of those sentenced to non-custodial punishments, we can come to the conclusion that current legislation has some challenges that need further research and development taking into account the international standards in force.

Keywords

Authors

References