On the Institutionalization of Penitentiary Sociology

Nowadays a new direction of penitentiary sociology is being actualized in the scientific community, which considers significant issues of social adaptation of convicts, their subculture, stratification, and resocialization. The importance of sociological knowledge in this area is substantiated, facts about a contradictory vision of punishment as a social function are presented. The subject of the author's consideration is the peculiarities of the interpretation of penitentiary sociology and the specificity of its formation. The purpose of this article is to characterize the boundaries of the subject field of this sociological knowledge and to consider the specifics of considering prison punishment from the point of view of multifunctional purpose. The authors consider the protosociological approaches of D. Howard, S. V. Poznyshev to the issue of organizing the penal system, as well as M. Fuko sociological interpretation of the role of punishment in society.