ABSTRACT
Criminal policy in the Czech Republic has long been criticised for the high number of prisoners and the associated prison overcrowding. Consequently, this problem manifested itself during the pandemic, especially in its second wave, when the disease spread significantly in some prisons, fortunately without a large number of deaths so far. At the onset of the pandemic, efforts were made to reduce the prison population considerably through the wider use of deferred custodial sentences and of conditional release, which did result in a sharper decline in the number of prisoners. And yet, the situation caused by the pandemic clearly pointed to the need for a major reform in the field of sanctions policy in the Czech Republic.
