On The Lenient Application Of Parole And Its Improvement Solutions Of Elderly Criminals

Under the background of the criminal policy combining punishment with leniency,some of the criminal laws are gradually becoming strict in China.For example,it has been amended a prison comprehensive sentence of criminals,which improved the maximum term of imprisonment to 25 years from 20 years,and improved the minimum term of suspended death sentences in the Eighth Amendment to Criminal Law of China.With regard to these changes of Criminal Law of China,it means that the criminals have to spend more time to stay in prisons,and it also leads to an increase in the number of elderly criminals in prisons.Therefore,the increasing of the elderly criminals in prisons will gradually result in increasing all sorts of expenses,and the cost of detention execution.In view of these problems arising from the increase of elderly criminals in prisons,it is one of the effective measures to solve these problems by parole.Parole is a penalty execution system stipulated by the Criminal Law of China,and it is also an important part in the process of execution in prisons.The application of parole is conductive to mobilizing enthusiasm of criminals for reform and improved to return to society smoothly.Meanwhile,it reduces the burden of prison executions to some extent.There has been no special criminal substantial legislation about application of parole of elderly criminals so far.So it still applies the general stipulations of parole in Criminal Law of China to elderly criminals.The new regulation about system of penalty reduction and parole enacted by the Supreme People Court in 2016 stipulates that the elderly criminals who meet certain conditions should be released leniently on parole according to the law,but there are no specific standards for how to be lenient.So in terms of legislation,it should be put forward some solutions on how to apply parole leniently for elderly criminals combining with the characteristics of elderly criminals.At the same time,according to the judicial interpretation,it should be broadened range on the lenient application of parole for elderly criminals,and it should not be limited to elderly criminals who meet the loss of basic living ability,cannot take care of themselves and no source of income after parole of elderly criminals to reflect the principle of individualization of punishment,so as to save penalty resources and achieve the effect of judicial justice.In this thesis,it studies the theoretical basis and practical significance of the lenient application of parole for elderly criminals,current situations and the main problems of the lenient application of parole to elderly criminals.In the first place,this paper studies the current situations and the main problems of the application of parole of elderly criminals from these aspects: the theoretical basis includes the economic principle of punishment,theindividualization theory of punishment,the idea of humanitarianism and the criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency.The practical significance of the lenient application of parole for elderly criminals includes complying with the weakening of the criminal responsibility ability of elderly prisoners;changing the negative attitude of the elderly criminals to reform;ensuring their old age in peace of elderly criminals.At present,there is no relevant judicial interpretation on how to master leniency,which also needs to be improved about parole in China.The difficulty and the low rate of applying parole are the most prominent problems in the current judicial situation.Secondly,the author analyzes from legislation and relevant judicial interpretation as well as inadequate resettlement and social security measures.In the aspect of legislation,there are some problems,including the conditions of parole application,the obligations of paroled criminals and the conditions of parole revocation and so on.In judicial interpretation,the main problem is too principled about stipulations,it needs to be refined and the placement of elderly prisoners and the implementation of social security measures.The improvement of the lenient application of parole for elderly criminals mainly includes the application conditions of parole,the obligations of elderly parole criminals,supervision and the inspection mechanism of parole and the relaxation of revocation mechanism of parole,defining criteria for lenient parole clearly of elderly criminals and broadening the range of lenient parole of elderly criminals.Moreover,in view of the phenomenon that the elderly criminals reject parole,the author believes that the government and community correction institutions should do a good mission in the resettlement social security measures for elderly criminals after parole,so as to ensure their life security after parole,and thus eliminate their worry of elderly criminals to reject parole.The last part is the summary,it is the future prospects about the lenient application of parole for elderly criminals.