LEVCHANOVSKYI D. Financial liability of convicts serving sentence in the form of imprisonment for a certain term

The thesis is a comprehensive scientific study that examines the process of influence of ensuring financial responsibility on the legal consciousness of convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term, the application of the rule of financial liability of convicts in order to effectively compensate for the damage caused by them during violation of the order and conditions of serving their sentence, as well as its impact on convicts’ correction and resocialisation. The thesis solves an important scientific task of deepening the theoretical and methodological foundations of educational influence, proposes to improve educational approaches and develop methodological recommendations for ensuring compensation for material damage by convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain period of time while serving their sentence. The author investigates the problem of the low level of ensuring the process of recovery of material damages from convicts in the course of serving their sentences by the staff of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine (hereinafter – SCES of Ukraine). The author analyses the impact on the legal consciousness of convicts from different angles of possible criminal-executive legal relations that became possible in case of violation of the order and conditions of serving a sentence, which caused material damage to the penal institutions during damage to property related to the termination of escape, self-inflicted bodily harm, treatment and non-compensation of maintenance costs. The author examines the processes of conscious and subconscious influence on the personality of a convict in places of imprisonment by ensuring that convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term are held liable for financial damages, which can significantly affect the degree of their correction, and proposes to amend the assessment of the degree of correction and the process of the legal mechanism of holding liable for financial damages. The author provides a theoretical and legal justification for the lack of effectiveness of the existing mechanism for recovery of material damages caused by violations of the procedure and conditions of serving a sentence of convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term. The study included a survey of 85 inmates of the educational colony and 150 adult convicts, namely: 100 men and 50 women who were serving a sentence of imprisonment for a fixed term. We also additionally conducted a survey among the heads of penal institutions (hereinafter - PIs) and pre-trial detention centres (hereinafter - PTDC) in the amount of 20 people. The author analyses the case law on recovery of material damages from convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain period of time before release from serving their sentence and during its serving. The author substantiates the need to improve the law enforcement elements of influence on law-abiding behaviour provided for in Articles 136 and 137 of the CEC of Ukraine, so that the SCES personnel can properly enforce the punishment of convicts, and not disproportionately apply disciplinary sanctions to the offence or offence committed. The author substantiates the inadmissibility of substitution of punishment for material offences with a disproportionate punishment, which has an impact on the process of correction and resocialization of convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term. As a result, the impact on the subconscious of convicts is inadequate, and the level of legal awareness to prepare them for a law-abiding life in society is not fully ensured. The authors established a negative impact on the legal consciousness and subconsciousness of convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term if the punishment for material damage caused by violations of the procedure and conditions of serving their sentence is not proportionate to the punishment. The author examines the personality of an offender who violates the procedure and conditions of serving a sentence by causing material damage to the material and technical base of the institutions of the SCES of Ukraine, and the impact and connection of the legal relations formed with other groups and categories of convicts sentenced to imprisonment for a certain term. The article also analyses the violated legal relations under criminal and civil law, in the course of which we identify the main criteria for their occurrence, application and implementation in the work of the PI staff.