ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF PROVIDING THE SERVICES TO THE CONVICTS AND INMATES THROUGH THE DIGITALIZATION PRISM

Abstract

The twentieth century in the history of mankind became the era of progress, the "technological miracle", the time of the rapid growth of the latest technologies role, in general. There has been a transition from the post-industrial society to the new stage of the social relations development, namely the information society stage, in which the main activities of the  public authorities, NGOs  and all human life, in general, moved to the upper technological level and gave rise to the new relations in the information sphere.

Under the influence of the globalization processes in the current conditions of the information society development in Ukraine, as well as in the whole world, it seems impossible to imagine any sphere of the state or public activity, which is not imbued with the latest information technologies. The latter have rapidly burst into our life and have radically changed it.

 Unfortunately, not many people fully use of the modern progressive achievements, although it often seems very necessary. The State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine is not an exception. Despite its permanent reforms, which made many changes in the system of the relevant legislation, in the system of the penal bodies and establishments, in the order of the execution of penalties and sanctions and even in the very purpose of the punishment, the modern innovations in the sphere of the information technologies were always skin-deep and superficial.

At present the ideological change in the approach to the process of enforcement and serving the sentences has already taken place. The new principles are put into the foundation of the state criminal-executive policy, namely: the unconditional observance of the convicts’ rights and freedoms, ensuring the proper conditions of the custody; refusal of the punitive punishment; moving to the resocialization, rehabilitation and correctional work as the main criterion during and after serving the sentences in order to prepare inmates to return to the open society; the professionally motivated personnel, openness and transparency for the society; adequate funding,  as well as the continuous introduction of the advanced technical and technological innovations.

Although it is unambiguously difficult to say, whether all the principles are fully implemented in our country, the introduction of the advanced technical and technological innovations at the Ukrainian penal bodies and establishments is not sufficient in comparison with the foreign counterparts and partners. The technological innovations are very rare in our system. The State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine is not even fully equipped with the simplest technical means, such as computers and printers. The technical security and supervision systems are old and completely outdated. They should be replaced.

In such situation it would seem that it is not appropriate to speak about the «digitization» of the system of enforcement of sentences. However, in our opinion, it should become one of the main spheres of reforming the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine. First of all, it will bring only positive changes and save both human and financial resources, as well as bring the Ukrainian penitentiary system into the same level with its foreign partners.