The experience of the countries of the European Union regarding the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens in penitentiary institutions

Abstract

The article conducts a theoretical and legal study of the experience of the European Union countries regarding the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens in penitentiary institutions. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical method of studying social processes, a systematic approach, general provisions of philosophy, theory of the state and law, constitutional, criminal and criminal law, criminology, psychology and private scientific methods of knowledge: historical, comparative legal, sociological and logical . An analysis of international standards for the treatment and detention of convicts was carried out, issues related to the protection of the rights of individuals, ways of implementing the norms of international legal acts that enshrine human rights and freedoms into national legislation were determined. The rights of persons held in correctional institutions are a set of natural and acquired rights, protected by the state, of persons serving a sentence in the form of deprivation of liberty, enshrined in normative legal acts. The legal interest of convicts understood as the established, state-protected right to realize the convicts’ aspirations to own significant goods, which depends on the fulfillment of a number of conditions established by law. The relevant international standards analyzed and critically evaluated the Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the European Penitentiary Rules, the Tokyo Rules, the practice of the European Union in the field under investigation. The existing standards of restrictions on the rights of prisoners in France, Great Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, Spain, and Italy reviewed and commented on. The process and problems of implementation of the standards of limitations of rights stipulated in the regulatory legal acts of Ukraine and implementation of the experience of the European Union countries described. It noted that the priorities in the field of execution of punishments in accordance with the Strategy for reforming the penitentiary system for the period until 2026 are: ensuring human rights, observing the minimum standard rules for the treatment and detention of convicted persons, increasing the effectiveness of the criminal enforcement system.