Forced Works as a Type of “Out-of-System” Criminal Punishment
Modern Russian criminal policy is aimed at humanizing criminal legislation, which is ensured, among other things, by the introduction of new types of criminal punishments that do not imply isolation of the convicted person from society. One of these punishments is forced labor. The use of its social importance is confirmed in official statements made by representatives of the highest bodies of state power. However, at present this type of criminal punishment is not widespread, and in the activities of the courts there are cases of erroneous interpretation and incorrect application of the norms on forced labor. The aim of the work is to formulate proposals for ensuring the proper differentiation of punishment that meets the social needs of the humanization of criminal legislation. To achieve the stated goal, it is necessary to consider the provisions of the criminal law on the specifics of the appointment of forced labor, to study court decisions in violation of the legislation on forced labor, to analyze the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the essence and characteristics of the appointment of criminal punishment in the form of forced labor. The study is carried out with the complex application of general and specific methods of cognition, traditionally used in legal science, namely: dialectical, comparative legal and formal logical methods, content analysis, synthesis, etc. Based on the results, the conclusion formulates that it is wrong to include such a measure of state coercion as forced labor into the system of criminal punishments. The criminal law regulations governing the content of this punishment are characterized by low quality of legislative techniques, and its practical application does not solve the problem of humanizing criminal legislation. It also formulates a proposal to conduct a deeper differentiation of the conditions for the execution of a criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment, which mitigates the legal impact on the convicted person without applying other punishments.