A “round table” meeting took place at the Chernihiv RSA

In the premises of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, under the chairmanship of the first deputy head of the Chernihiv RSA, a “round table” meeting took place, the theme of which was “Participation of the public in the resocialisation of convicts”.

During the conversation at the round table, it was noted that every year about 1,000 people return to the Chernihiv region from penal institutions, among whom only last year 93 young people under the age of 23 returned.

Serving their sentences, they remain in conditions unfavourable for their positive rehabilitation: detachment from their usual environment, isolation from society, a forced lifestyle, restrictions in the realisation of personal needs, and prolonged cohabitation with criminals, as a rule, degraded mentally and morally, not only cause them material losses but also lead to negative changes in their psyche and reduce their social value.

Many convicts are negatively influenced by such factors as the loss of ties with their family and, as a consequence, divorce (according to sociological data, more than 50% are such divorced persons), loss of housing, qualifications, residential registration, etc. Practically every second convict has certain mental deviations.

It happens that people who have spent some time in places of deprivation of liberty become accustomed to living in incarceration and feel more comfortable there than when they are free. Not because they like life in these institutions, but because it is even harder for them on the outside. Some people need months to transition from one lifestyle to another. And for some, a year, during which they experience stress and tension, will not be enough for this. Undoubtedly, they need the help of society. Unfortunately, the vast majority of this category of citizens remains outside the attention of government bodies and social institutions, without elementary support in solving problems of a household nature and employment. Society for the most part turns away from former convicts, thus pushing them towards unlawful acts.

It is no secret that more than 35% of those released from places of deprivation of liberty need special psychological or psychiatric intervention to restore adaptive mechanisms that are weakened or destroyed. Due to the lack of such help, they replenish the cohort of persons without a fixed place of residence and work, and as a result receive a “permanent registration” in colonies.

Therefore, one of the problems of the present day is the social adaptation of people released from places of deprivation of liberty, because social adaptation is a complex of legal, economic, organisational, socio-psychological, and other measures carried out regarding released persons with the aim of adapting them to the conditions of the social environment and protecting their rights and legal interests.

Unfortunately, and this was noted by almost all participants of the round table, today in the matters of social adaptation of persons released from places of deprivation of liberty, there are more problems than positives, and they need to be solved only by the combined efforts of both government bodies and the public.