According to Part 1 of Art. 52 of the DPR Criminal Code, forced labor is applied as an alternative to imprisonment in cases provided for by the relevant articles of the Special Part of this Code, for the commission of a crime of moderate or medium gravity, or for the commission of a serious crime for the first time.
In accordance with Part 3 of Art. 52 of the DPR Criminal Code, forced labor consists in bringing a convicted person to work in places determined by institutions and bodies of the penal system.
Based on Part 4 of Art. 52 of the DPR Criminal Code, forced labor is prescribed for a period of two months to five years.
Thus, the types of criminal punishments are enshrined in Art. 43 of the DPR Criminal Code. The application of this or that type of criminal punishment should be sufficient to correct the convicted person and contribute to the restoration of social justice.
According to Part 2 of Art. 52 of the DPR Criminal Code, if the court comes to the conclusion that it is possible to reform the convicted person without actually serving the sentence in places of imprisonment, by imposing a sentence of imprisonment, it decides to replace the convicted person’s sentence of imprisonment with forced labor. When a court imposes a sentence of imprisonment for more than five years, forced labor is not applied.
However, Part 6 of Art. 52 of the DPR Criminal Code states that if the convicted person evades serving forced labor, it is replaced by imprisonment at the rate of one day of imprisonment for one day of forced labor.
Part 7 of Article 52 of the DPR Criminal Code establishes a certain list of categories of persons who fall outside the type of criminal punishment in question.
Forced labor is not assigned to minors, persons recognized as invalids of the first or second group, pregnant women, women with children under the age of three, women who have reached the age of fifty-five, men who have reached the age of sixty, as well as military personnel.
Thus, the use of this type of punishment as forced labor contributes to the “return” of convicted persons to a society that strictly adheres to the norms of the law.
