The Legal Framework of Conditional Early Release in Georgia
Conditional early release from serving a sentence — release before the expiry of the term — is fully regulated by Article 72 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, and it is that norm which determines who decides the question of release, what minimum fraction of the sentence must actually have been served, and what follows the release. The identity of the decision-maker is decisive. Where the sentenced person has been assigned community service, corrective labour, restriction of military service or house arrest, the question of release is decided by a court, on the rationale that the convicted person's correction no longer requires the full serving of the sentence. Where a term of imprisonment has been imposed — except for a convict placed in a special-risk detention facility — the question passes to the local council of the Special Penitentiary Service, a state sub-agency within the system of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. The "parole board" familiar from Anglo-American practice corresponds to precisely this local council, together with the probation bureau that supervises released persons.