Labour in prison in the perception of convicts and employees of correctional facilities

The article examines the problem of the legal regulation of labour of convicts sentenced to imprisonment, the correlation of the perception of work by convicts and officers of the penitentiary system. It is known that back in the early 1990s, the authors of the alternative project of the Correctional Labour Code of the Russian Federation proposed a broad system of incentives for convicts to conscientious voluntary labour. At that time, the Correctional Labour Code of the RSFSR contained provisions according to which only convicts with a conscientious attitude to labour could be subject to parole, replacement of the unserved part of punishment with a milder form, a suspended sentence. Now, like in the Soviet period, socially beneficial labour of convicts in prisons is recognised as one of the main means of their correction (Part 2, Article 9 of the RF Correctional Code). But convicts themselves perceive it ambiguously. In many respects, it is because there are obvious differences between the labour of convicts and of free citizens. This issue was long and actively discussed in the Soviet literature on correctional labour law. And the positions of the authors were often opposite. Some pointed to the equivalence of the labour of convicts and of free citizens. In their opinion, the nature of the labour of convicts was no different from that of ordinary workers. Others believed that the well-known differences between the labour of prisoners and of free citizens are inevitable, they will exist as long as the labour of prisoners exists, for these differences are generated by the purposes and peculiarities of this labour. The essence of the labour of convicts in prisons is determined by the following main features: 1) in terms of economic theory, it is equivalent to labour out of prison by nature; 2) unlike the labor of free citizens, the labour of convicts is compulsory and not voluntary (with the exception of the categories specified in Part 2 of Article 103 of the RF Correctional Code); 3) labour mainly pursues a correctional goal, and its economic role (including profit-making) does not come first, which is in accordance with the norms of international law; 4) the labour of convicts, as well as its conditions, is not a penalty; it is a non-punitive correctional measure that combines with punishment. Obviously, the compulsory nature of the labour of the majority of convicts is a manifestation of imperative principles in penal legal regulation. Such principles are enshrined in most other norms of penal legislation. However, in a number of legal situations, it can be stated that imperative principles are increasingly supplemented or even superseded by dispositive ones. One of the manifestations of dispositive principles may be a contract concluded with convicts in the sphere of their employment. This practice exists in many regions of the country, although the RF Correctional Code does not contain a norm obliging the administration of a correctional facility to conclude such contracts. The data of a sociological survey demonstrate that the penal system at the level of the perception of convicts and employees (that is, subjectively) is actually ready to exclude the obligatory labour of convicts. Nevertheless, every fourth convict and employee believes that labour in prisons remains compulsory. For the part of convicts who work voluntarily in prisons, the exclusion of the legal obligation of labour is possible now; but for the others, such an exclusion will lead to refusals to work and unwillingness to work at all. From the viewpoint of internal organisation of labor, it is necessary to mass-enforce the signing of contracts with convicts to achieve a motivational and stimulating effect that will develop dispositive principles in the penal system. It is also necessary to settle the issue of other incentive measures to motivate the convicted person to useful work. This is justified, since the contract signed with the convicts performs a motivating function, which, in combination with incentives to work, ensures the correction of convicts. Thus, in prisons, the conclusion of a labour contract or an "employment contract" is desirable, since it enhances the positive motivation of the convict, increases the flexibility of legal regulation and ensures the application of dispositive principles. However, under the present conditions, the possibility of concluding such contracts does not indicate the need to exclude the obligation of labour in prisons. This is possible only in the long term in the conditions of modernisation of the material and production base of facilities, large-scale educational work, changes in the current penal legislation, including a system of incentives to encourage conscientious attitude of convicts to labour.

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