Russian Federation
343.846
Taking into account the provisions of international legal documents, the experience of a number of post-Soviet countries, domestic judicial practice and analysis of departmental statistics of the penal system, the article substantiates changes in the conceptual apparatus of the institution of release of a convicted person from serving a sentence due to illness. The research methods in the scientific article are universal methods (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analogy and modeling, system- structural, formal-logical); empirical methods (generalization, classification); theoretical methods (idealization, hypothetical-deductive method, comparative law); specifically scientific methods (statistical). In the study, the provisions of international legal documents are divided on the basis of the expediency of releasing terminally ill prisoners: directly indicating the need for their release (the first group) and indicating special conditions of detention and care for seriously ill convicts without direct orders for their release (the second group). It is concluded that international standards, generally recognizing the need for medical exemption, do not contain grounds and procedure (algorithm of doctors’ actions) in this situation and leave the solution of these issues at the mercy of national legislations. The article examines the experience of legal regulation of release due to illness in a number of post-Soviet countries that share a common historical and legal framework with the Russian Federation: the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The article analyzes judicial and departmental statistical indicators characterizing the procedure for the release of a convicted person from serving a sentence due to illness for 11 years (2013–2023) and identifies the main trends in this area. It is noted that despite the instruction of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 8 dated April 21, 2009 that «when deciding on the release of a person from punishment, the determination by the court of the presence of a serious illness preventing the serving of punishment» is crucial, courts in practice often ignore it. Thus, in 2023, only 52.5 % of applications for the release of convicts with already confirmed presence of a disease included in the list of obstacles to serving their sentence were satisfied. A number of areas for improving Russian legislation regulating early release from serving a sentence for health reasons are identified.
release due to illness, the purpose of punishment, measures equivalent to torture, special international standards for the treatment of convicts, punishments related to compulsory labor, serious illness that prevents the serving of punishment, disease that prevents the achievement of punishment goals, post-penitentiary relapse
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