Contradictio in adiecto? Conditionally suspended non-isolation penalties under operative and proposed law
The Polish Criminal Code being currently in force introduced the possibility to conditionally suspend non-isolation penalties, such as fines and community service orders. However, using this innovative penal measure was constantly criticised for providing actual impunity for criminal offenders. Therefore, under proposed amendments to the Code conditional suspension of non-isolation penalties is removed from the criminal regulation. The legislator argues that this probation measure was not used in the criminal law jurisprudence. Moreover, the differences between non-isolation penalties effectively implemented and conditionally suspended are blurred. The paper focuses on a theoretical analysis of whether these legal proposals can be assessed as praiseworthy in a comprehensive view of the criminal justice system. The legal hypothesis is that conditional suspension of non-isolation penalties is a valuable penal tool for low-risk offenders and therefore should not be abolished.