FORCED LABOR IS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE TO IMPRISONMENT IN THE CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT SYSTEM

Forced labor and the problems of its application are among the most discussed issues in the scientific literature of recent times. This is largely due to the fact that this is the newest criminal law measure in the penal system, with all the inherent disadvantages inherent in each undertaking. The desire to quickly increase the number of people sentenced to forced labor led to a different result from the one originally conceived by the legislator. According to the authors, the composition of convicts (the vast majority of whom are persons transferred to correctional centers from correctional institutions) indicates that forced labor has become one of its "branches" instead of an alternative to imprisonment. This completely duplicates the functions that were previously assigned to the colony settlements. And it was only by the end of 2023 that the negative trend in terms of the nature of this punishment towards the fullness of correctional centers was interrupted. The authors are critical of the term "system of alternative (to imprisonment) punishments" used in the scientific literature, believing that such a system does not exist, and only forced labor is an alternative to it.