The Purpose of "Correction" in the Russian Criminal and Criminal and Executive Law

In: Journal of politics and law: JPL, Band 12, Heft 5, S. 6

Abstract

The process of carrying out (serving) a criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment according to the Russian criminal and penal law provides for isolation of the convicted person, limitations of rights and certain freedoms, as well as using corrective measures to change the criminal orientation of that person towards positive law-abiding behavior. According to penal law, the corrective process is being implemented by carrying out the main measures of corrective action, which the law lists as: regulated conditions, socially useful labor, educational work, general and professional education, and social influence.

Currently the penal system sees a general trend of reducing the total number of imprisoned persons. According to the statistics by the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, 880 thousand people were serving a prison sentence in 2010, 550 thousand people in 2016, as of 1 June 2018 that number was 520.5 thousand people, and as of 1 May 2019 it was 552,188 persons. In the recent years, the number of prisoners tends to stay on the same level. These numbers testify to the continued humanization of the criminal and penal policy of the Russian Federation, as well as to the results of applying corrective actions to those sentenced to imprisonment.