ENGLISH-IRISH TYPE OF EUROPEAN PENAL SYSTEMS: ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL FUNDAMENTALS, MEANS OF PRISONERS´ TREATMENT AND CONDITIONS OF THEIR DETENTION

Abstract

The scientific basis of the classification and typology of the European penitentiary systems are presented. The method of comparative jurisprudence and the system analysis of the European penitentiary reality are used in this article. The methodological substantiation of the existence of a group of European states with their typical features of penitentiary practice is given. The author states the up-to-date characteristic of the Anglo-Irish type characterized by peculiarities caused, first of all, by its scope of the legal system of Common Law and the decline of the settled liberal approaches to a crime and penal pragmatism. The main characteristics of the type under consideration are joint jurisdiction of penal authorities, considerable specific proportion of prisons among correctional institutions, essential development of the elements of progressive penal correctional system, diverse and active usage of rehabilitative means and individual rehabilitative programs for prisoners as well as measures of prisoners’ re-socialization and relatively wide usage of the institution of public private partnership in the penal sphere. The attention is focused on the fact that in the context of active maintaining the progressive standards of treatment of convicted persons in prisons of the Benelux Union, some violations of the convicted persons’ rights are noted in the reports of the representatives of the CPT who visited Ireland, England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The author draws a conclusion that the analysis of Anglo-Irish penitentiary type in the context of the controversial reform of the national penal system causes the natural research interest to the further typological comparative and legal study of European penitentiary chart.