COMMUNITY WORK OF CONVICTS IN PLACES OF UNFREEDOM AS A MEASURE OF CORRECTION AND RESOCIALIZATION
Authors:   Academician Stepan Demianchuk International University of Economics and Humanities, Bohatyrov I.H. , Bohatyrova O.I. ,   Legal and Analytical Support  Office of the Prosecutor’s General  Kyiv, Ukraine
Published: October 2023

This article is about the socially useful work of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty, since this tool plays an important role in the lives of convicts while serving a criminal sentence, it creates certain prerequisites to acquire new work skills and the opportunity for a convict to be paroled from serving a criminal sentence. This article acquires special significance in connection with the ongoing scientific discussion among domestic scientists and practitioners of the penal enforcement system of Ukraine: on the recognition of community service as a right of convicts (Article 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine); the convict’s participation in socially useful work upon conditionally early release from serving a sentence (Article 81 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); whether it is possible to consider socially beneficial labor in places of deprivation of liberty as forced. The article emphasizes that the socially beneficial work of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty involves many factors, in particular: how many penal institutions of the State Security Service of Ukraine have their own production; what is the capacity of production facilities where convicts are employed, and what are the working conditions at the factory; whether the rules of labor protection, safety techniques and industrial sanitation, established by the labor legislation, are observed in the places of detention; whether this number of persons is included among those who are involved by the administration of the institution of execution of punishments to work on the improvement of residential and industrial areas of places of detention, adjacent territories and to improve the living and living conditions of convicts, since according to the fifth part of Article 118 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, such convicts are involved without payment work, as a rule, on a first-come, first-served basis, during non-working hours and for no more than two hours a day; is the training of convicts organized for the most widespread professions that are relevant in society and are in high demand (for example, locksmith, plumber, specialist in wood or metal, etc.). It has been proved that the socially beneficial work of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty is an urgent problem of scientific research, domestic scientists of the penitentiary field and practical workers of criminal-executive institutions of the State Security Service of Ukraine. It is noted that the involvement of convicts in community service is primarily an attempt by the administration of penal institutions of all security levels to create favorable conditions: employment of convicts while serving a criminal sentence; timely repayment of the debt owed to the victim of the crime according to the writ of execution; preparation of the convict for reintegration into society after serving the sentence. Based on the results obtained in the course of the scientific research, the following conclusions were made: socially useful work of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty to a certain extent contributes to the psycho-emotional relief of convicts, distracts them from different opinions and conflicts and contributes to correction and resocialization; the conscientious attitude of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty to socially useful work, subject to the fulfillment of other means of correction and resocialization, gives the convict the opportunity to exercise the right to parole; socially useful work of convicts in places of imprisonment creates all the conditions for obtaining useful skills that can positively affect the further work of the convict after release from prisons; socially useful work of convicts in places of deprivation of liberty is a reliable means of their correction and resocialization. Key words: community service, convicts, personnel, places of imprisonment, punishment, correction, resocialization, material support.