On the Importance of Operational-search Activities in Ensuring the

Tasks of Penitentiary Prevention

Valeriy Aleksandrovich Zhabskiy

, Olga Aleksandrovna Zigmunt

, Arkady Ivanovich Kochkarev

and Igor Alekseevich Uvarov

Department of Criminal Law, Kuban State Agrarian University named after I.T. Trubilin, Russia

Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences of the University of Vechta, Vechta, Germany

Department of Administrative Law and Administrative Activity, Ryazan branch of the Moscow University of the Ministry of

Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation named after V.Ya. Kikot, Russia

Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Stavropol branch of the Krasnodar University of the Ministry of Internal

Affairs of Russia, Russia

Keywords: Operational-search activity, penitentiary prevention, penitentiary criminology.

Abstract: In the context of the complication of socio-economic relations that have taken place in recent years in our

country, there is a significant aggravation of penitentiary contradictions in places of deprivation of liberty.

This state of affairs urgently requires additional efforts from the penitentiary system to strengthen law and

order in the assigned units. This problem becomes especially acute due to the fact that the load on the relevant

subjects of penitentiary prophylaxis increases many times over. In this regard, it becomes urgent to determine

other, qualitative priorities in the distribution of the functions of educational and preventive influence on

convicts. One of such subjects is the operational-search divisions of correctional institutions. The specific

arsenal of preventive action available to them can be used to ensure the tasks of penitentiary prevention in the

new socio-economic conditions. The current state of penitentiary prophylaxis requires a special study of the

capabilities of operational-search means, and therefore the purpose of the study was formulated as follows -

to identify problems associated with the use of operational-search activities to solve the problems of

penitentiary prevention. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to solve organizational and methodological

problems, and first of all: to define theoretical and methodological approaches to the use of operational-search

activities in the implementation of penitentiary prevention; to characterize the specifics of the use of

operational-search activities in the implementation of penitentiary prevention; to determine the educational

and preventive value of the use of operational-search activities in the penal system. In the course of the study,

specific mechanisms for the use of operational-search activities in the process of implementing the goals of

penitentiary prevention were established. The results obtained in the course of the research may be of great

practical importance for penitentiary science.

1 INTRODUCTION

The activity of correctional institutions in recent years

has been taking place in rather difficult socio-

economic conditions. This significantly complicates

the process of reforming convicts. One of the specific

factors that significantly reduce the correctional

potential of the domestic penal system is the illegal

activities of the convicts themselves. Despite the fact

that statistics record a relatively small number of

crimes committed by convicts during the period of

serving their sentences, their negative impact on the

implementation of penitentiary prevention is

extremely destructive. According to the reasonable

statement of N.S. Artemiev, the presence of

criminality in places of deprivation of liberty testifies

to their increased social danger, thereby undermining

the basis of the existence of institutions and bodies

executing criminal punishments (Artemyev, 2007).

Even isolated facts of crimes committed in

correctional institutions form a negative attitude

among citizens not only towards the domestic

penitentiary system, but also towards the punishment

applied in general. Citizens stop believing in the

protective function of the law, which contributes to

the spread of legal nihilism. Most negatively, it

affects the qualitative assessment of the correctional

400

Zhabskiy, V., Zigmunt, O., Kochkarev, A. and Uvarov, I.

On the Importance of Operational-Search Activities in Ensuring the Tasks of Penitentiary Prevention.

DOI: 10.5220/0010645300003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

400-404

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

process in the minds of persons serving a sentence of

imprisonment.

Such facts can not leave aside the consciousness

of the representatives of the administration. They

have a destructive effect on the staff of correctional

institutions, reducing the quality potential of

educational and preventive influence. They give rise

to insecurity not only in their own safety, but also in

the safety of their loved ones.

The illegal activity of convicts during the period

of serving a criminal sentence is a fairly well-studied

phenomenon, which suggests that the arsenal of

means for countering it has been developed quite a

long time ago. In this regard, the question of how

much this potential can be realized in modern socio-

economic conditions is quite natural.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Content analysis and longitudinal studies of the

normative and value characteristics of correctional

staff were identified as a methodological basis

capable of solving the tasks set before the study.

Content analysis was aimed at studying text

documents performed by correctional officers in the

performance of their professional functions. The use

of this method was due to the fact that in the course

of their professional activities, employees of

correctional institutions, as a rule, perform the same

type of documents (only those documents were used

that have no restrictions on use). This enables tracing

the variability of the approach to their

implementation.

Longitudinal studies were performed on the basis

of the faculty of vocational training and additional

vocational education of the Academy of the Federal

Penitentiary Service of Russia, among employees

who underwent advanced training pursuant to the

nature of their professional activities. The array

consists of 102 employees of various structural

divisions of correctional institutions (n = 102 with

operational experience). Work experience of at least

five years.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The key problem of criminality sentenced to

imprisonment is its high latency. Moreover, in the

conditions of penitentiary institutions, this feature is

of a purely specific - objective nature. The fact is that

the convicted person is not only in a position isolated

from society, but also under the constant supervision

of the staff. Hence, natural is the statement of I.I.

Karpets that “crime in places of deprivation of

liberty... is large in scale ... considering the fact that,

it seems, there should be no crime in these places”

(Karpets, 1992). This kind of approach is the basis for

justified criticism of the administration of

correctional institutions, which, in pursuit of a

positive assessment of the quality of their work,

resorts to various tricks that allow many crimes to be

"transferred" into the category of disciplinary

offenses (Titanov, 2016).

The acts that, by their nature, have a negative

impact on the functioning of correctional institutions

are of particular danger to penitentiary prevention. In

this regard, it is quite relevant to identify in the system

of statistical accounting of the illegal activities of

convicts of such a category of crimes as - "especially

considered" (Ministry of Justice of the Russian

Federation, 2008). Thus, pursuant to the Federal

Penitentiary Service of Russia, the level of especially

considered crimes in correctional institutions (per

1000 convicts) is 0.35%. This indicator is

significantly lower in pre-trial detention centers and

prisons - 0.10% (Ministry of Justice of the Russian

Federation, 2011). Indicators of this kind are often the

justification for better conditions for the confinement

of convicts in cells (Sorokin and Sorokina, 2013). The

confinement in cells significantly facilitates the

supervision of convicts, which makes it possible to

better solve the problems of penitentiary prevention.

This gives grounds to individual authors to propose to

reorganize correctional colonies into prisons. (Utkin

et al., 2018)

By virtue of the tasks solved by the penal system,

a special place in the system of special subjects of

penitentiary prevention is given to operational units

of correctional institutions. In the special literature, it

is even proposed to use a special concept -

"operational-search prevention" (Solodovnikov,

2004). Extrapolating this kind of prevention to the

activities of correctional institutions, N.A. Artemiev

believes that "one of the indispensable conditions for

solving problems in the fight against penitentiary

crime is to increase the efficiency of operational-

search activities" (Artemyev, 1998).

From the point of view of legal regulation of the

preventive work of correctional institutions,

operational-search activity should be aimed at

ensuring the prevention of crimes. This is evidenced

by the Federal Law "On Operational Investigative

Activities", which defines the tasks (Art. 2) and

principles (Art. 3), regulates many issues that

determine the specifics of this activity.

On the Importance of Operational-Search Activities in Ensuring the Tasks of Penitentiary Prevention

401

In Art. 84 of the RF PEC specifies the tasks of

operational-search activities in correctional

institutions, the general significance of which, in our

opinion, can be defined as related to the direct

provision of criminal proceedings. In other words, the

main task is to ensure not so much the fight against

the illegal activities of convicts during the period of

serving their sentence, but rather the creation of

conditions for ensuring the correctional process. We

agree with the opinion of those authors who propose

to consider the very fact of the presence of operational

units in correctional institutions as the

implementation of early crime prevention (Nazarov,

2002).

Among the factors that determine the preventive

value of the activities of operational units of the penal

system, we tend to single out:

 awareness of those sentenced to imprisonment

about the methods of work of operational units

(this is especially true for persons who have

previously served a sentence of imprisonment);

 a permanent state of a penitentiary, and in some

cases of a penitentiary conflict (often in the

literature they are mistakenly defined as

contradictions arising between the staff of

correctional institutions and convicts (Detkov,

2011);

 the ability of convicts to carefully hide their

criminogenic nature;

 the latent nature of the unlawful views and

aspirations of the convicts, realized during the

period of serving the sentence;

 the presence of a certain criminal qualification

(this factor, in connection with the

development of communication means, is

inherent not only to convicts who have

previously served a sentence of imprisonment).

All of the above factors indicate that the

implementation of "latentization of criminogenic

processes in conditions of isolation of convicts from

society" (Uvarov, 2020), is characterized by the fact

that it is possible to identify them and actively resist

them only with the help of the means of operational-

search activity. This is due to the possibility of using

open and discrete forms of preventive work. This

makes it possible to single out at least two specific

areas:

 independent implementation of measures,

primarily individual prevention, in relation to

certain categories of convicts (as a rule, these

are persons prone to committing various types

of offenses);

 the use of criminologically significant

information obtained by operational means to

concretize the measures of direct and

individual preventive work.

It is very important to understand here that if in

the first case, the convicts are aware that the

administration has the necessary information about

their illegal intentions, then in the second case, the

information is purely confidential, which makes it

possible to adjust the measures of individual

prevention. The ability to use confidential

information about a convict in individual preventive

work allows one to single out operational units in the

system of special subjects of penitentiary prevention.

They have, in comparison with other subjects of

prevention, wider opportunities in the educational and

preventive work. Hence, the assertion of individual

authors that operational-search activity is the only

means of effective influence on criminogenic

phenomena and processes in places of deprivation of

liberty (Obraztsov, 2008).

The features of operational-search activity in

ensuring the tasks of penitentiary prevention include:

 the main part of preventive measures is

performed through the secret collection of

information, in connection with which, one

cannot exclude a significant share of

subjectivity among convicts who preface it;

 all measures performed by operational units are

aimed at eliminating the causes and conditions

conducive to the commission of unlawful acts

by convicts (in some cases, such measures are

also performed in relation to the personnel of

correctional institutions);

 territorial limitation of the activities of

operational units (only in some cases - it can

extend to the adjacent territory).

In our opinion, it is obvious here that the

implementation of all of the above features is

determined by the specific functions of the

operational units. Only they are empowered to

perform operational-search activities in relation to

convicts and personnel. This right puts them in a

separate position in the system of specialized subjects

of penitentiary prevention. The availability of special

opportunities for the use of covert measures makes it

possible to identify in a timely manner the persons

from whom the commission of illegal acts can be

expected. Without disclosing this information,

specialized subjects of penitentiary prophylaxis

adjust measures of educational and preventive

influence in relation to a particular convict or group.

Herewith, operational units can continue to perform

covert control over the nature of the response to

ongoing educational and preventive measures.

CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH

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In this context, it can be stated that operational-

search activity is performed not only in order to

prevent the illegal activities of convicts, but also to

solve a wider range of preventive tasks. Taking into

account the foregoing, operational-search activities

aimed at providing penitentiary prevention can be

considered in two aspects:

a) in a broad sense - as part of a specialized form

of influence on convicts in order to achieve

their correction. Here, the peculiarity of the

work of specialized subjects of penitentiary

prevention is fully manifested;

b) in the narrow sense - as part of the

criminological prevention of the crime of

convicts. Here the tasks set forth in Art. 2 of the

Federal Law "On Operational Investigative

Activities" and Art. 84 of the RF PEC.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Thus, the operational-search activity of the

operational units of the penal system to ensure the

tasks of penitentiary prevention is performed in the

following directions:

 overt and covert influence on the personality of

convicts capable of manifesting various forms

of destructive behavior (Filippova, 2020),

(Kachurova and Suturin, 2018);

 monitoring of internal negative processes

occurring in the ongoing in the penitentiary

society (Filimonov, 2019), (Utkin, 2019);

 elimination of the existing shortcomings in the

organization of the correctional process by

operational-search means (Peremolotova,

2017), (Uvarov, 2021).

The basis for the implementation of all of the

above directions should be a fundamental change in

the penal policy of our country (Seliverstov, 2016).

Herewith, understanding the complexity of the use of

operational-search activities in the implementation of

penitentiary prevention, it is necessary to take into

account the requirement to respect the rights and

legitimate interests of those sentenced to

imprisonment (Grishko, 2015).

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