THE ESSENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INSTITUTION OF PROBATION IN UKRAINE AND POST-SOVIET STATES (BY THE CASE OF RUSSIA; LATVIA)

The article analyses measures constituting the content of probation in Ukraine. The authors concluded that the introduction of the institution of probation in Ukraine was guided by authorities' determination to solve the problem of employment for the released detainees and decrease their reoffending rate. In Ukraine, probation is exercised at three levels: pre-trial, supervisory and penitentiary. Pre-trial probation provides the court with formalized information about the accused is based on the assumption that crime as a socially dangerous act should not be considered by the court in isolation from the person who committed it. Supervisory probation intends to undertake supervisory, social and educational measures towards persons sentenced to certain punishments specified by law. Penitentiary probation assists the convicts who are preparing to be released from prisons with determining places of their residence after their release, providing them with in-patient services in health centres, and other things aimed at their adaptation in the society. The institution of probation was concluded to have a positive economic effect in terms of the state as the person staying in the society continues to pay taxes and tend to decrease the crime rate. For a person who has committed a crime, this is a chance to correct his behaviour, and retain his social ties, work and family. For the society, it means the existence of fair justice to maintain balance between punishment and the interests of the society. The article considers the drawbacks of probation in Ukraine such as insufficient level of transparency in the operation of the probation body and the violations by the staff of this institution (improper social and educational work with convicts, a formal approach to working out the individual plans on convicts), which significantly reduce its efficiency. The authors also examined the system of social adaptation of convicts in Russia, analysed the features of the probation system in Latvia having revealed the common and distinctive features in relation with those in Ukraine and offered improvements for the Ukrainian system of probation.