The article states that the criminal-executive system of Ukraine is not only a system for holding convicts and detainees. It is a powerful component of state policy in the field of punishment and probation, involving significant human resources capable of ensuring order and the conditions for execution/serving of sentences and of restoring the legal and social status of convicted persons as full members of society.
The author argues that because the legal construction of a new Penitentiary Code of Ukraine has not yet been the subject of separate study in penitentiary science, its development by Ukrainian scholars remains at the level of a doctrinal approach. On one hand, this underscores the relevance of the issue; on the other, it shows an active search for appropriate terminology in the provisions of the current criminal-executive legislation of Ukraine and in the scholarly works of Ukrainian researchers.
Modern penitentiary theory and practice proceed from the premise that the creation of a new Penitentiary Code in Ukraine must comply with national and international standards and with procedures for restoring a convicted person’s legal and social status as a full member of society through social correction.
Thus, the doctrine of penitentiary law should reveal the connection between existing criminal-executive legislation and its evolution or cessation through transformational procedures. Unfortunately, current academic works have not yet offered a comprehensive view of the legal nature of the transition from criminal-executive legislation to penitentiary legislation, including the creation of a working group to draft the new Penitentiary Code.
It has been demonstrated that close cooperation among Ukrainian scholars from various legal fields has made a significant contribution to reforming Ukraine’s criminal-executive legislation, bringing its transformation into a new vision of penitentiary law closer to reality. Nevertheless, the need to prepare a new Penitentiary Code is now on the agenda. This involves: updating legislative provisions adopted since 2003; reflecting the effectiveness of the legal framework governing the activities of institutions and agencies of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and assessing them; determining the necessity or rejection of ongoing modernization of the criminal-executive system as a legal tool for transforming criminal-executive legislation into penitentiary law; and taking into account the 2015 adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Probation», which introduced a new institution for carrying out non-custodial sentences for probation subjects.
The article concludes that the development of a civilized model of lawmaking in the Ukrainian penitentiary sphere, through the transformational transition from the Criminal-Executive Code of Ukraine to the Penitentiary Code, requires a construction different from that of the current Criminal-Executive Code. It is emphasized that this proposal is innovative, and only a systematic structuring of the general and special parts of the Penitentiary Code with appropriate articles will show the extent to which the creation of a new Penitentiary Code, as part of the doctrine of penitentiary law, aligns with Ukraine’s European integration into the legal field of Europe.
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