CONDITIONAL EARLY DISCHARGE FROM THE REST OF THE PUNISHMENT IN THE LEGISLATION OF POLAND: CONDITIONS, CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE CONVICT, PROBATION

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the legal institution of conditional early discharge in the legislation of Poland with the definition of conditions, criteria for assessing the behavior of the convict and the tasks of probation. Polish legislation has certain differences in contrast to Ukrainian regarding the conditions for granting conditional early discharge by the court to serve the remainder of the sentence of deprivation of liberty set out in Article 77 §1 of the Criminal Code of Poland. According to this provision, a person sentenced to deprivation of liberty may be conditionally released from serving the remainder of the sentence only if there is a positive criminological prognosis of the convict, assessed by the court on the basis of all such factors related to the convict as his attitude to the crime committed, his personal characteristics and the conditions, circumstances under which the crime was committed, the behavior of the convicted person after it was committed, the behavior during the serving of the sentence, the belief that the convicted person, after release, will comply with the criminal or protective measure and observe the rule of law, in particular, will not commit the crime again. That is why the possibility of using the institution of conditional early discharge depends on the positive criminological prognosis of the convict, evaluated by the court on the basis of all the above factors related to the convict. Based on an analysis of all these factors (without the possibility of omitting any of them), the court must come to the conclusion that the convicted person after release will behave as expected of him by law. However, it should be borne in mind that when assessing the criminological prognosis of the convict, such circumstances as the type of crime committed, the degree of its social danger, considerations of a fair nature or the need to form legal awareness, the criminal legal status of the perpetrator, too short a period has elapsed from the moment of serving the sentence, the minimum sentence qualifying for conditional early discharge, or a sentence that is too long or too short until the end of the sentence.