An important condition for the proper and fair application of immunity from punishment by the courts is compliance by the courts with the guidelines of release from punishment. It must be stated that the guidelines of release from punishment are a relatively “young” legal phenomenon that has not yet been sufficiently explored in criminal law doctrine. The purpose of the article is to define the concept of guidelines of release from punishment. With the use of dialectical, systemic, and hermeneutic scientific methods of cognition, the author analyzed the features of the analyzed concept and, for the first time in domestic legal science, formulated the definition of the concept of guidelines of release from punishment.Additional arguments are given in favor of the position that the principles and guidelines of release from punishment are relatively independent concepts of criminal law, which are in a certain relationship and relationship, which seems correct. In this regard, it is proposed to consider guidelines of release from punishment in the sense of not principles, but general rules of application of the provisions of this criminal law institution.It was concluded that the position expressed in the legal literature regarding the signs of the guidelines of release from punishment needs further improvement.The author believes that guidelines of release from punishment should be characterized by the following features: 1) certainty; 2) obligation; 3) generality; 4) productivity; 5) systematicity; 6) thoroughness based on the principles of exemption from punishment.Taking into account these characteristics, guidelines of release from punishment should be considered a system of general and mandatory for the court established by law, interrelated and interacting initial rules based on the principles release from punishment, which should be guided by the court applying a certain type of release from punishment in each criminal proceedings and for each convicted person.A formulation based on the analyzed concept of the system of guidelines of release from punishment seems promising for further research.