Suspended sentences as an alternative to imprisonment in Poland

Under Polish law, a suspended prison sentence is not a separate type of sanction, but merely a mode of implementing an imprisonment sentence. However, for all practical purposes, it has always been considered to be an alternative to imprisonment. Already during the 1930s, it amounted to about one-third of all court-imposed sanctions, but during the 1990s and 2000s, it started to constitute 50–60% of all sanctions. Heavy reliance on this sanction was criticised for lacking any real ‘penal bite’. Moreover, in most cases, it was not accompanied by any meaningful obligations or supervision by a probation officer. This resulted in the public perception of Polish criminal justice being unduly lenient. However, this is incorrect, as Poland has one of the highest incarceration rates in Europe. Paradoxically, one of the causes of this is the frequent use, or abuse, of suspended sentences. A majority of Polish prisoners are not long-term prisoners, but offenders sentenced to suspended sentences who subsequently had their suspensions revoked. Broad reforms introduced in 2015 managed to significantly reduce the use of suspended sentences and to intensify the use of other alternatives to incarceration. This, however, did not have a major impact on the high rate of incarceration.