Juvenile prison is the only punishment that can be imposed on a juvenile offender, and only for older juveniles. An older juvenile who has committed a criminal offense for which the law prescribes a prison sentence of 5 years or more may be sentenced to juvenile prison if, due to the high degree of guilt, the nature and severity of the offense, it would not be justified to impose a corrective measure. Juveniles under the age of 16 cannot be sentenced to juvenile prison.
The purpose of juvenile prison is both special and general prevention, i.e., to exert increased influence on the juvenile offender to prevent them from committing further crimes in the future, as well as to deter other juveniles from committing crimes.
The juvenile prison sentence cannot be shorter than 6 months or longer than 5 years, and it is imposed in full years and months. For a criminal offense for which the prescribed prison sentence is 20 years or more, or in the case of concurrent sentences for at least two criminal offenses for which a prison sentence of more than 10 years is prescribed, juvenile prison may be imposed for a duration of up to 10 years.
The juvenile prison sentence is served in a juvenile correctional facility, where the offender can stay until they reach the age of twenty-three. If the offender does not complete their sentence by that time, they are transferred to adult correctional facilities where adult offenders serve their prison sentences for criminal offenses. In exceptional cases, a juvenile sentenced to juvenile prison may remain in the juvenile correctional facility even after reaching the age of twenty-three, if necessary for completing their education or vocational training, or if the remaining part of the sentence is no longer than six months, but no later than their twenty-fifth birthday.
The conditional release institution is also applied to the juvenile prison sentence. To apply this institute, the convicted older juvenile must have served 1/3 of the imposed juvenile prison sentence, but not before six months have passed, provided that based on their behavior and other circumstances, it can be reasonably expected that they will behave well in freedom and will not commit new criminal offenses. In the case of conditional release, the offender may be required to fulfill certain obligations or be subjected to some form of increased supervision.