Sentencing in Czechia: Unprincipled, but Not Manifestly Unjust

Statutory provisions in Czechia provide wide discretion to judges in sentencing. Appellate courts, scholarship, and other actors provide only limited guidance on how to exercise it. The system lacks accountability and has substantial disparities. Cases are processed quickly by means of penal orders and guilty pleas, resulting in offenders’ risks and needs not being sufficiently considered. Czech sentencing is dominated by suspended prison sentences that raise sizable proportionality concerns. Upon imposition they are sometimes unduly lenient, and upon revocation the prison terms served are unduly severe. Frequent imposition of suspended sentences for serious offenses including rape and serious assault results from overemphasizing the role of previous convictions. After 1989, the general part of the penal code became more lenient, and the special part concerning authorized sentences became more severe. Sentencing reforms have been piecemeal and often inconsistent, resulting in a system that lacks an overall strategy but has chronically high imprisonment rates.