Unit III. Aims and tasks of penitentiary service

Key words:

penal prison system

penitentiary system execution of sentence

correctional system deterrence

criminal-executive system corporal punishment

corrections retribution

rehabilitation capital punishment

resocialization prison

life imprisonment inmate/prisoner

educational and vocational training punitive ideology

deprivation of liberty enforcement of punishment

treatment observance of human rights

John Howard

State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine

Before you read

Task 1.1. Before reading about the role and tasks of penitentiary system think of the subject in general:

1. Do you know the origin of the term “penitentiary”?

2. Where does it come from? Name the territory if possible.

3. Is there any difference between “penitentiary system” and “prison system”?

4. What do you know about the history of the penitentiary system?

Task 1.2. Study the synonyms of the word combination PENITENTIARY SYSTEM and clear up the meanings of the following words using the knowledge related to the penitentiary systems of different countries:

1) criminal-executive system;

2) penal system;

3) correctional system;

4) corrections;

5) prison system.

Task 1.3. Read the passage which summarizes the main idea of the CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM at common law and decide if the Penitentiary System of Ukraine has the same functions. Share your ideas with other members of the class:

After sentencing, the offender enters the correctional system. In the broadest sense, corrections involve community supervision or probation, various types of incarceration (including jails, houses of correction, and state pris­ons), and parole programs for both juvenile and adult offenders. Corrections usually represent the retrial care given to offenders when a sentence is imposed by the court and the offender is placed in the hands of the correctional agency. During this stage of the criminal justice process, the offender may be asked to participate in reha­bilitation programs designed to help him or her make a successful read­justment to society. He or she may be forced to radically adjust his or her personality and lifestyle. Corrections play a critical role in the criminal justice system and act as the major sanctioning force of the criminal law. As a result, the system of corrections has many responsibilities, among them protecting society, deterring crime, and reha­bilitating offenders.

Task 1.4. Comment on the quotation of Winston Cherchill (1910):

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.

Unit 3.1. The Role and Tasks of the Penitentiary System

Task 1.5. Read and translate text A. Write down three lists containing the following: facts you know, facts you haven`t known before and facts you want to know better. Compare your list with your groupmates’ lists.

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 in delivering the state strategic objectives directed to improvement of efficiencies and effectiveness of the correctional process plays the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine.