Shadows of Freedom: a modern look at escaping from correctional institutions

In recent years, there has been a permanent downward trend in the number of escapes from prisons. However, despite this, there still an urgent problem that requires a comprehensive and integrated approach to prevention of escapes. The subject of the study is the analysis of the key reasons influencing the escape of convicts and the identification of existing problems in the activities of correctional institutions. The purpose of the work is to assess the current state of the penal enforcement service in Russia in the context of work on preventing escapes; to draw up a portrait of a modern convict who escaped; to determine what the phenomenon of escapes lies in; to develop a set of measures to improve the prevention of escape activity; to formulate development directions for minimizing and preventing escapes from correctional institutions. The methodological basis of this work combines theoretical and practical aspects: criminological, regulatory and comparative analysis, statistical method, sociological approach, induction, deduction. The research paper proposes a list of a set of measures to eliminate existing problems and improve the work of the penal enforcement system to prevent escapes from places of deprivation of liberty. The results of the work indicate the importance of the problem of prisons' escapes and emphasize the need for a thorough study of escape activity both at the legislative level and at the level of each correctional institution, which as a result will be regarded as a competent investment in the normal functioning of the penal system. The scope of the results includes the practical use of the proposed recommendations by the territorial bodies of the penal enforcement system to monitor the state of escape activity and the full performance of assigned duties by correctional officers. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the development of author's recommendations on minimizing escape activity. The conclusions that were formulated in the work made it possible to draw attention to such an acute problem that exists in modern realities in correctional institutions, to the need to eliminate gaps and shortcomings that affect escapes from correctional institutions, as well as to develop optimal ways to minimize and solve these problems.

escape, inmate, correctional facilities, strategies, penal system staff, escape activity, causes, improvement measures, problems, places of detention