«Accursed thing» is the right thing

«Who repented of his sins, he is almost innocent», -  Seneka Prison ... At all times and in all languages this word was used to name that terrible place where a person is deprived of his liberty, work, friends, and even hope. Russian people have the following saying: "Jail is never too far", and this means that every man can get there. But, in my opinion, the correctional institution can not be considered only negatively, because it has a very important and necessary task for the individual and society. Let’s think about it. People get in custody by breaking the norms of a society after what the society can not tolerate them inside it anyone. And they treat it in different ways. Some offenders think that they were treated unfairly, harbors resentment and "let the winds". Others realize that it is the "reward of their deeds" and it takes the punishment for granted. And there are those who not only accept the punishment as an external constraint and evil, but believe in the spiritual correction. They tend to rethink themselves and their misconduct and even to regret it. The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote about such a man in his novel "Crime and punishment" where the author described the internal state of the offender after committing the crime very accurately. The author also depicted mental anguish and restlessness of a law-breaker. After all these torments the main character of the novel Rodion Raskolnikov realizes his "distance" from the people, their otherness and he begins to realize that his conduct must be redeemed. The final lines of the novel carry our hero from externally free but internally ill capital city of St. Petersburg to Siberia, where, surprisingly, he finally finds inner freedom. Having repented of his deeds, the offender finds meaning of his future life. To my mind, it is very important for any offender not to lose hope of returning to normal society, and for the very society it is important not to turn away from him and to help the offender to find his place in it. That is why one of the main objectives of the correctional system should become training people for the life in a society.  We admit that prisoners stumble, having committed a crime but we should not give up on them. Who but the staff of the correctional system have to dispel the invalidity myth of ex-convicts? But it is hard work that requires the staff's high qualifications, the impact of many forces and taking part in the fate of the individuals. Correctional officers have a lot of duties, for example they should: give an inmate the opportunity to exercise his rights, save offender’s life and health, protect him against crime actions, give a good, useful and professional education, help to restore the lost documents and solve the problem of his employment, etc. Not everyone can cope with it, that is why there should not be casual, indifferent and sleepy people in the penal system. Two years ago I decided to become a part of the penal system. I can not say that it was easy for me to make the decision. I had doubts about my personal readiness to the hard work, but now, having studied a year and a half, I have become increasingly convinced of the correctness of the decision. I should thank my teachers, officers, and senior companions. And the attention that is paid to the problems of the correctional policy by the state’s powers strengthens my belief in this choice. In my view, the work with prisoners, even the former ones, should not finish after the end of the prison term. Whatever these places are, they are to guarantee the inmate to get "shelter", food, medical care there, and once he is outside, he often appears to be abandoned and rejected by his family, relatives, friends and as a result he gets into a difficult financial situation. It often happens that the ex-offender has nowhere to live and can find no job. Upon his release, after a while he is forced to take the crime path again that would lead him back to the prison. That is why the creation of conditions for a successful re-socialization of prisoners is the most important task of the whole society in general, and the penal system in particular. We should also mention the work with prisoners that are sentenced to the correction not involving imprisonment. "A thief must be in jail" - these are the words of a popular movie hero "The venue can not be changed" that became a kind of an axiom for many law-abiding citizens. I do not underestimate the importance of this saying. However, we should remember that any sentence must correlate to the offense. So I think that a minor offense should not punished by imprisonment. In that case it would be more effectively if the punishment involved corrective labor or a fine and the inmates wouldn’t have to pass through the prison practice that could lead to absorbing the ideology and the “beauty” of the criminal world. That is how any inmate can have an opportunity to realize the danger of losing freedom. I hope that it will make them cherish it. In conclusion I should say that the welfare of any state, the quality of its citizens’ life is made up of the successes and achievements of each person, his morals and willingness to live for the good of society. So you can not just dismiss the problems of penal policy and the prison system can not be taken as the rejected world, as that which is not related to me or to my family. Anyone who has been convicted by the court, should get a chance to improve, and each employee of the correctional system is to remember the high goal to which he has devoted his life. Never mind what people say, it is still necessary for our society. And even society itself, I hope, will change its traditionally negative attitude to the penal officers and appreciate their hard work. Ruslan Zavolokin, 2^nd year cadet  of the training combatant department of Kuzbass Institution of the Federal Penal Service (Novokuznetsk) Источник: ПИФСИН Материалы по теме