In this study, we analyze the features of modern imprisonment. The author, first of all, starts by pointing out the trend of penal populism which imposes a series of negative consequences for the ...entire social system and then evaluates five main theses related to criticism of the criminal sanctions which were indeed raised by Foucault with an aim to determine whether ultimately, today, something has been altered in the era of global integrations, self-proclaimed democratic societies and increasingly loud proclamations for the protection of human rights and freedoms. The following part of the study is committed to contemplating the positive and negative consequences of life imprisonment, as of latterly initiated punishment in the system of criminal sanctions of the Republic of Serbia, with an allusion to sole comparative law solutions.
The currently applicable Penal Code provides for the possibility of imposing a life sentence on the perpetrator for an act committed by him after a final conviction for a crime against life and ...health, freedom, sexual freedom, public security or for an offense of a terrorist nature. Also with respect to the perpetrator whose nature and circumstances of the act as well as his personal characteristics indicate that remaining at large will pose a permanent threat to the life, health, liberty or sexual freedom of other persons. The above solution was assessed through the prism of the fundamental principle under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland – human dignity. Excluding the possibility of conditional early release deprives the convict of any hope of improving his fate, which should be treated as lifelong mental torture. Since dignity is the source of all human and citizen rights and freedoms and is inviolable, the legal solution adopted in this regard should be assessed negatively. The only extraordinary possibility provided for by law, i.e. the right of pardon provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, is a presidential prerogative, which does not have to be based on social rehabilitation progress during serving the sentence, which contradicts the essence of serving the sentence.
The Act of 7 July 2022, amending the Act – Criminal Code and certain other acts, introduced the possibility of imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without parole into the Criminal Code. The ...legislator provided for two grounds for the optional imposition of an irreducible life imprisonment sentence. The first (Article 77 § 3 of the Criminal Code) is based on formal grounds: a previous conviction for a specific type of crime (against life and health, freedom, sexual freedom, public security, or of a terrorist nature) to life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of not less than 20 years. The second ground (Article 77 § 4 of the Criminal Code) operates on a substantive condition: the nature and circumstances of the act and the personal characteristics of the perpetrator indicate that the perpetrator’s remaining at liberty would pose a permanent danger to the life, health, freedom, or sexual freedom of others. This article posits that the provisions of Article 77 § 3 and 4 of the Criminal Code are incompatible with Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. As a result of the introduction of this type of punishment in Polish law, we may unfortunately realistically expect other states to refuse to hand over individuals prosecuted for crimes punishable by such punishment or those already sentenced to such punishment.
In the early twentieth century, European criminal justice systems started to discuss new security measures for dealing with persistent habitual criminals and mentally disordered offenders. New ...preventive institutions were established in the Nordics in the shift of the 1920-1930s. Indeterminate confinement came to cover both persistent property offenders, and repeat serious violent and sexual offenders. The success of these measures and the effectiveness of institutional treatment more generally, came to be questioned in the Nordic countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Disappointment about treatment effectiveness, combined with increased stress on legal safeguards, predictability and proportionality in the administration of criminal justice, undermined professional support for indeterminate sanctions and compulsory care. The use of preventive detention was either restricted, as in Denmark and Norway, or abolished altogether, as in Finland and Sweden. However, there were other arrangements in the latter countries, which partly served the same purpose.
Is life without parole the perfect compromise to the death penalty? Or is it as ethically fraught as capital punishment? This comprehensive, interdisciplinary anthology treats life without parole as ...the new death penalty. Editors Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and Austin Sarat bring together original work by prominent scholars in an effort to better understand the growth of life without parole and its social, cultural, political, and legal meanings. What justifies the turn to life imprisonment? How should we understand the fact that this penalty is used disproportionately against racial minorities? What are the most promising avenues for limiting, reforming, or eliminating life without parole sentences in the United States? Contributors explore the structure of life without parole sentences and the impact they have on prisoners, where the penalty fits in modern theories of punishment, and prospects for (as well as challenges to) reform.
In this address I argue that large reductions in unproductive and unjust uses of imprisonment requires curtailment of the over use of life imprisonment. I go on to discuss how criminologists should ...engage the policy process to achieve material reductions in prison populations by the accumulation of many incremental reductions in the overuse of incarceration.
La pena de muerte y la cadena perpetua son sanciones prohibidas por la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño de 1989 para delitos cometidos por menores de 18 años, con base en la idea de que debe ...existir una respuesta penal diferenciada para los menores de edad y los adultos, lo que es especialmente importante cuando se trata de penas graves y crueles. Este artÃculo aborda la situación en los paÃses que han suscrito dicha Convención; en especial Estados Unidos, el único paÃs del mundo que no lo ha hecho, y cuya Constitución prohÃbe las penas crueles e inusuales y cuya Corte Suprema ha declarado que el tratamiento penal diferenciado entre menores de edad y adultos es uno de los estándares de decencia que caracterizan a una sociedad civilizada.
When Justice Frank Vincent sentenced serial killer Paul Denyer to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of Natalie Russell, Elizabeth Stevens and Deborah Fream in the Supreme Court of ...Victoria in December 1993, he described the crimes as 'almost beyond comprehension'. With great foresight, he said that the crimes would continue to cause anguish to the families of the victims and others who loved them. Despite Denyer's guilty plea and his age (21), he declined to set a non-parole period, considering Denyer to be a continuing danger to the community. He wrote that he did not wish to abrogate his responsibility to 'some distant Parole Board' but would leave it to a decision of the Executive Government of the time to decide whether to release him (1993 VicSC 764).
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