Vocational education in places of confinement as a means of convicts’ resocialization and their social adaptation after release

Introduction: the article studies the issues of education as the state’s area of priority and also as one of the major means of reformation and adaptation of convicts serving their sentence in places of confinement. Purpose: to substantiate the importance of vocational education for convicts in places of confinement. Methods: the authors use general methods of scientific cognition, among which the main ones are dialectical, cultural, sociological and statistical approaches. The research is based on the analysis of specific social relations and real practice, and assessment of the specific historical setting. Results: the study has shown that in the current socio-economic situation there is a demand for specialists in applied spheres, mainly for agricultural workers. The article touches upon the issues of food self-sufficiency of divisions of the penitentiary system; the authors state the necessity of agricultural education for convicts in places of confinement in order to apply the acquired knowledge on farms of penal colonies. Making convicts interested in doing agricultural work is rather a difficult task, which is only possible to perform in case of providing prisoners with real prospects, namely organizing theoretical and practical training and offering them a possibility to obtain ownership of a land allotment and also to be granted collective early release on condition that there are good results of their agricultural labour. Conclusions: it is proposed to resume the implementation of the project on family settlements, which will provide a powerful incentive for convicts’ resocialization and their social adaptation after release