LEGISLATION ON EDUCATIONAL WORK WITH PRISONERS IN RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN
In the desire to reform the penal system, separate countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States have made significant progress, substantially updating their legal framework. These also include the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study of the normative consolidation and organization of educational work with convicts under the Kazakhstan and Russian legislation and a questionnaire of practitioners revealed the advantages and disadvantages of regulatory support and law enforcement practice. This made it possible to outline further ways to improve the legal regulation of educational work with convicts in the direction of convergence with international standards. The penal legislation of the two countries largely coincides, but in Kazakhstan the issues of educational work find their legal consolidation not only at the level of the Penal code, but also in special acts. The advantages of Kazakhstan’s legislation include: a clear definition of the tasks, directions, forms and methods of educational work; improvement of the mechanism of incentives and penalties application; determining the degree of behavior of convicts; involvement of the Probation Service in the provision of social and legal assistance to convicts preparing for the release; the presence of convicts among the subjects of educational work of voluntary organizations. Otherwise, the organization and conduct of educational work with convicts coincide. The basis of the organizational structure of the correctional institution is the unit, the heads of which are overloaded with the tasks not directly related to the implementation of the correctional process. Taking into account the experience of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it is proposed to amend the Penal code of the Russian Federation, in terms of the formulation of the concept of educational work through its tasks; clarification of norms relating to the directions, forms and methods of educational work. In the Provision about the units of prisoners in correctional institution, it is necessary to change the amount of duties for the head of the unit: establishing a ban (limitation) on the involvement of chiefs to implement unusual functions for them; the transfer to the category of rights the obligation to participate in inspections of the presence of persons held in a correctional institution, taking them to work (from work), their presence during searches, mealtime in the dining room, getting of parcels, transfer, sale of food and basic necessities, telephone conversations.