Innovation In Criminal Policy Of Imposing Alternative Sanctions In Slovak Justice

Concept of alternative sanctions imposition is based on principal ideas of so called restorative justice. Fundamental theses of restorative justice have been reflected in the Slovak legislation upon the adoption of applicable criminal- law regulation, namely through the development of the system of so called alternative sanctions vs short-term sanctions of imprisonment. This category of sanctions includes home confinement as a central topic of the article. The sanction of home confinement has passed major changes since its establishment. Material-law terms of such sanction imposition and its essence have gradually changed upon effect of legislation tools. The article provides for analysis of home confinement sanction imposition terms pursuant to the Penal Act in the context of application issues that have been identified, concurrently searching for causes of low frequency of such sanction imposition from the statistical data analysis. Furthermore, the article points to significant application problems of home confinement execution associated with the probation officers institute and monitoring of the sanction execution by technical means that can be considered innovative in the area of sanction execution monitoring. In its final section, the article offers detailed analysis of draft legislation related to the terms of home confinement sanction imposition and execution, as well as the range of criminal acts that can be punished with home confinement. Accordingly, the article presents considerations of possible effects of the proposed regulation on the decision-making judicial praxis. This article is aimed at analyzing the essence and purpose of home imprisonment sanction, the terms of its imposition, application of technical means to control the imprisonment in the context of application praxis issues, as well as evaluating the proposed legal regulation that changes principal terms of home imprisonment sanction imposition and its effects on decision-making and the application praxis.