Role of Public Associations in Educational and Social Work in Penitentiary Institutions

the article considers problems related to the development of public associations in the penal system. These associations should not only contribute to the social growth of the system, but also act on a deregulated, proactive basis. Purpose: to analyze ways of functioning of public associations in the Russian penitentiary system. The research methodology is based on: 1) the study of legal foundations for public association functioning; 2) the intent analysis of self-representations of the Federal Penitentiary Service in relation to public associations, which includes information from open sources, statements of authorities, analytical reviews and other non-corporate publications. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to process the texts. Online statements suggest internalization of the topic and its active reproduction in a broad social discourse, with references to the history of the phenomenon and its significance for symbolic reproduction. The semantic coding of the topography of public associations is structured by analogy with a “black box” with different inputs and outputs: 1) a strong positive emotion towards public associations in the management level, 2) a certain critical position towards public associations at the grassroots level. Classification of intentions, patterns, and determinants helps change the focus of the study, which makes the analysis interesting and productive. At the same time, public associations have always been in the sphere of media attention in connection with the democratization of institutions, targets for increasing the manageability of systems. Results: 1) the practice of public associations is studied, taking into account the position of educational and social work with personnel; 2) problematic issues in the field of functioning of public associations are systematized; 3) solutions to the problem of crime prevention with the participation of employees of the penal system are formulated.