Methodological tools for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term in conditions of reforming (development) of the penitentiary system of Ukraine

Abstract

The article identifies methodological tools for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term in conditions of reforming (development) of the penitentiary system of Ukraine.
 Summarizing scientific approaches to the methodological tools for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term, three paradigms of methodology of future penitentiary science are identified, the task of which is to explore the full range of problems of execution and serving punishments in Ukraine.
 Thus, the first paradigm for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term is presented by the works of penitentiary scholars, as a certain methodological tool through which the problems of penitentiary science were studied. At the same time, the relevant methodology was based on materialist dialectics, special research methods in this field, which together created the basis for criminal-executive science.
 The second paradigm for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term is based on the theory of knowledge of the problem and determining ways to solve it. Given the fact that the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term was first enshrined in the new Criminal and Executive Code of Ukraine (Article 7), the methodological tools of our study should be based on understanding that the state respects and protects rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of convicts in places of detention.
 The third paradigm for studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term, in contrast to the above approaches, should be multifaceted, given that the subject of our study is directly related to the methodology of other sciences, including criminal law, criminology, civil and family law, etc.. Therefore, the multifaceted knowledge of the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term may include a system of methods of scientific knowledge in solving their specific tasks to implement the legal status of convicts.
 It is concluded that the methodology of studying the legal status of convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty for a fixed term is a system of organized special methods (general scientific dialectical method of cognition, historical method, system-structural method, comparative-legal method, logical-legal method, etc.) of penitentiary science, which is considered through the prism of techniques and means of scientific knowledge used by the staff of penal institutions in working with convicts in determining their subjective rights, legitimate interests and legal duties.