The legal acts are considered, the methods and forms of convicts’ social adaptation during the penitentiary period in foreign countries are analyzed in the article. Such countries as Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany and the United States have been chosen for analysis. The main criterion for choosing countries for further analysis is the availability of positive experiences in convicts’ social adaptation during the penitentiary period and a low level of recidivism after their release. Analysis of the methods and forms of convicts’ social adaptation during the penitentiary period in certain countries was made in a descriptive form and taking into account the following restrictions: – unification of the conceptual apparatus in the sphere of convicts’ resocialization was not done; – statistic data of convicts’ number who passed individual social adaptation programs were not used; – comparative characteristic of statistical indicators of recurrent crimes in these countries during the same period of time was not done; – financial component of ensuring social adaptation programs was not take into account.

Such concepts as re-socialization, social adaptation and social assistance were considered during the analysis. Time periods and processes that are inherent to them were mentioned. Some specific features of different countries in direction of organization work of convicts’ social adaptations were separated. In particular, it was suggested Great Britain to be considered the leader among countries on organization of work in prisons directed to full educational adaptation.  The United States of America can be considered to be the leader regarding the number of programs on reducing crime that are based on convicts’ self-analysis of their crimes and needs, understanding of the necessity to change their life style. Germany can be considered to be the best example in direction of minimizing the gap between life in prison and life in freedom. According to German specialists, this leads to the fact that a prisoner will not lose human dignity during detention and it will reduce the level of recidivism in future. Switzerland is considered to be the leader on responsibilities of the penitentiary system personnel and other non-state bodies (non-governmental organizations, funds etc.) to conduct the adaptation measures for convicts’ correction. As a result of the maintained analysis, it is proposed to amend the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine in order to improve the quality of re-socialization measures as providing the convicts with an opportunity to take professional trainings at work, taking into account convicts’ personal interest and in accordance with the demand for a profession in the society; to provide prisoners with specialized workplaces for consolidation of skills acquired in places of imprisonment.

Key words: convicts’ re-socialization, social adaptation, foreign experience, assistance, adaptation methods, social assistance.

References

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