The dissertation study reveals the criminal-executive principles of the legal status of convicts in places of detention in Ukraine, as well as formulates proposals for improving the sectoral regulatory and legal support and law enforcement practice through the prism of international experience. The dissertation proposes a number of new theoretical and practical provisions that reflect its scientific novelty, in particular, for the first time: the definition of the concept of "criminal executive principles of the legal status of convicts in places of detention in Ukraine" is formulated - a system of rights and obligations of convicts serving sentences in places of detention of the State Criminal Executive Service, which is regulated by criminal executive legislation, and which is considered through the prism of reforming the penitentiary system of Ukraine and international standards; based on the historical and legal analysis of the legislative initiatives of the central executive authorities responsible for ensuring the formation and implementation of the state policy in the field of execution of criminal sentences, during the period of the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine, the author distinguishes three periods of transformation of the legal status of persons sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term, namely: I period (2004–2010), II period (2010–2016), III period (from 2016 to the present); the author identifies the essential features of the concept of «convicts' rights», which makes it possible to better understand the place of this structural element in the system of legal status of convicts and to trace both the doctrinal and regulatory basis of various rights of convicts to different types of punishment, which is important from the point of view of their guarantee, enforcement and protection; the author presents the socio-legal conditionality of imposing legal obligations on prisoners in places of detention, the main function of which is specially preventive (criminological). It is noted that one of the main differences between the obligations of convicts and their rights is that failure to fulfill the former results in undesirable consequences for a person - the fact of bringing convicts to legal liability, which is differentiated by types into disciplinary, material, and criminal liability; the author proposes ways to improve the legal status of prisoners in places of detention in the context of reforming (developing) the penitentiary system of Ukraine, including: 1) gradual transfer of the penitentiary system of Ukraine to the cellular regime of detention in order to guarantee the right to personal security to prisoners in places of detention; 2) improvement of the system of medical care for prisoners; 3) improvement of nutritional standards for convicts; 4) creation of specialized electronic stores in penitentiary institutions; 5) development of digitalization principles in the area of ensuring certain rights (introduction of the right of convicts to file appeals in electronic format, video calls between convicts and their relatives); 6) improvement of the mechanism for realizing the legitimate interest of convicts in early release from serving their sentence or commutation of the unexpired part of the sentence to a lighter sentence; 7) defining the conceptual framework for optimizing the mechanism of execution of sentences in places of detention as an integral element of the legal status of convicts in the following areas: a) ensuring regime and security; b) material and living conditions of detention of convicts; c) medical care; d) work and vocational training of convicts; e) social, psychological, educational and educational work with convicts.
Also improved: the concept of the legal status of prisoners in places of detention by formulating the author's definition - these are the rights and freedoms of prisoners in places of detention regulated by the Constitution of Ukraine and other legal acts, which have a narrowed scope during the period of serving their sentence and ensure their legitimate interests and legal obligations; understanding of the socio-legal significance of the duties of persons sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term, in particular, it is proposed to consider them not only from the penal and correctional, but also from the criminological perspective; classification of the legitimate interests of persons sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term according to the following criteria: 1) by the time of action; 2) by the nature of material expression (through the convict's realization of the desire to obtain a social benefit provided for by law); 3) by the nature of legal facts; 4) by the subjects of application; the mechanism for realization of the legal status of convicts in places of detention in the context of reforming (developing) the penitentiary system of Ukraine.
