The census of 2022 is an important stage in the study of the personality of convicts

Abstract

In the penitentiary systems of States, scientific information about the identity of convicts is important. International standards specifically emphasize the need to obtain reliable data on trends characterizing the prison population and its distinctive features. The Ninth special Census conducted in December 2022 aims to supplement the available statistical data on the identity of convicts serving sentences of imprisonment and forced labor, as well as persons detained in pre-trial detention centers in Russia. The need for a special census was based not only on the modern needs of improving the penal policy, but also on the basis of compliance with historical traditions. The practice of conducting special censuses was characteristic of the period of the USSR (in these cases it affected correctional labor institutions located in Kazakhstan), and it continued in modern Russia. The article summarizes the organizational and methodological features of the nine special censuses that took place in the history, the main focus is on the last special census conducted in December 2022. The general features and peculiarities of the Ninth Special Census are analyzed, their theoretical justification is given. The parameters of the census, the forms of its implementation, the tendencies of the desocialization of the personality of convicts and the property stratification among them, which manifested themselves in the results of the census, are also disclosed.