Text A. The Role and Tasks of the Penitentiary System

You can`t equate a penitentiary system with a prison one. The history of the prison system has been developed over hundreds of years: in the Middle Ages it was the place of confinement where inmates expected the execution of capital punishment or corporal punishment and, in a number of cases, it served as the place of life imprisonment for dangerous state prisoners. The prison system carried out the functions of deterrence, retribution and isolation (general and private prevention).

Incarceration as a sanction against a crime remains a powerful tool. However, punishment alone can never guide a prisoner to change.

The concept of penitentiary idea deriving from the Latin “poenitentia” means an idea or an act of penitence. John Howard (1726-1790), the reform-oriented sheriff of Bedfordshire, the author of famous book, The State of Prisons, published in 1777 was the very person who implemented this concept to life. The prisoners were taught to “the right way of thinking” such as meditations on God, understanding the difference between good and evil and the necessity to do penance.

The use of this term nowadays in the names of penal systems shows a new approach to executions of court decisions related to punishment of criminal defendants aimed at doing their penance (a concept referred to today as resocialization). During the past years, the idea of resocialization of offenders based on the penitentiary philosophy has been the core of the penitentiary function of almost every state.

Thus, the modern penitentiary system isn`t a structure for location of the convicted offenders in places where they are deprived of their liberty; it`s an entire correctional system related to enforcement of punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty which includes all means and methods of lawful, psychological and pedagogical influence on the convicted offenders for contribution to their resocialization.

The purposes of the penitentiary system are, on the one hand, social rehabilitation to enable the offenders in future to lead law-abiding and useful lives without committing crimes, and, on the other hand, protection of society, security and general prevention.

The concept of resocialization, as it is prescribed by the Criminal Code of Ukraine, is conscious rehabilitation of the convicted person in his/her social status as a member of society, a successful return to his/her law-abiding life.

In Ukraine, the key role indelivering the state strategic objectives directed to improvement of efficiencies and effectiveness of the correctional process plays the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine.