Changing the type of correctional institution for convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty in the penitentiary law of foreign countries

Most countries have developed a progressive system of serving punishment which allows prisoners to gradually improve their position by successive transportations from the maximum security prison to a lower security prison. The analysis of penitentiary legislation and national prison systems in the most developed countries of Anglo-Saxon (England, USA, Canada) and Romano-Germanic (Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Italy) legal systems enabled the author to identify general and specific approaches to the implementation of the institute of changing the type of the correctional institution by the convicts. General approaches include: individual stimulation of convicts’ behaviour and the results of this stimulation; prisoners’ attitude to work and education; the degree of risk of making an escape and danger to society. Consideration of the given criteria underlies the decision to improve the legal status of the convicts by his changing the type of imprisonment. Individual planning of serving punishment in the form of deprivation of freedom and the designed personal correctional programmes for the enforcement of penalties in these countries are based on a deep psychological approach to the convict’s personality and are the most effective methods and means of achieving the objectives of punishment, namely, resocialization of the convicts. A positive experience of execution of punishment in these countries can be the basis for further improvement of the Russian penitentiary system.