BALANCE OF INTERESTS OF PRISON STAFF AND CONVICTS THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE PRINCIPLES OF DIFFERENTIATION AND INDIVIDUALIZATION OF EXECUTION OF PUNISHMENTS

Abstract

One of the modern meta-ideas regarding the functioning of prisons in Ukraine should be the search for optimal forms of balancing the interests of the staff of places of imprisonment and convicts through the prism of the principles of the criminal law of Ukraine (Article 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine). Such a meta-idea corresponds to the strategic tasks of reforming the criminal enforcement system of Ukraine and its transformation into a penitentiary system. Therefore, the modern challenges of reforming the criminal-executive system of Ukraine and its transformation into a penitentiary system require flexible legislative and departmental regulation and prompt response to the processes that take place in the bodies and institutions of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. Since the balance of interests of prison personnel and convicts is not a stable category, but on the contrary, a dynamic one, we set ourselves the task of considering this balance through the prism of the principles of criminal law enforcement of Ukraine using the example of the principle of differentiation and individualization of the execution of punishments. An important place in the study of the problem of the balance of interests of prison staff and convicts is also given to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, because the violation of the rights of prisoners in prisons by the staff who serve them shows that the Court checks whether a fair balance has been achieved between the interests of the convict and staff during execution/serving of punishment. We believe that maintaining a balance of the interests of prison staff and convicts through the prism of the principles of differentiation and individualization of punishment opens a new vision of reforming the criminal justice system of Ukraine and its transformation into a penitentiary system. At the same time, this process is ensured by providing these subjects of criminal law with equal opportunities for the realization of a single goal: socialization, resocialization and reintegration of convicts into society after release. A fair balance of the interests of prison personnel and convicts through the prism of the principles of differentiation and individualization of the execution of punishments should be ensured by the norms of the criminal law of Ukraine. It is also worth emphasizing that the balance of interests between prison staff and convicts through the prism of the principle of differentiation and individualization of execution/serving of punishment is not a static, but a dynamic category, and therefore it can be interpreted as a complex legal mechanism of continuous movement of the matter of penitentiary law. That is why the key role in this balance should be played by the principles (Article 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), taking into account which the entire process of execution/serving of punishments should take place. We gave a special place in this format to the principle of differentiation and individualization of execution of punishments. Therefore, the balance between prison staff and convicts through the prism of the principle of differentiation and individualization of the execution/serving of punishment should be understood as the balance of interacting criminal-executive legal relations, which ensure the stability of criminalexecutive law and create a prerequisite for its transformation into penitentiary law.