The security in penitentiary system depends a lot on prison subculture. This subculture consists in adopting values, norms and principles that facilitate to fulfil one’s own needs in conditions of imprisonment. However, very often informal groups base their activities on patterns derived from the criminal subculture. The prison subculture often depreciates human dignity, being one of the most important factors disturbing the process of institutional rehabilitation. At the same time, there is a lack of scientific researches that can help to develop the field of behavioural studies in informal structures culture which have a significant influence on the state security due to the efficiency of penitentiary system and its rehabilitation function. To mitigate the gap in current investigations in this field, this research deals with prison subculture in Polish penitentiary system based on survey of penitentiary service officers. Our findings allow to conclude the significant changes in prison subculture during last decade. The most important are: increase of authority among inmates with a better material situation (23%), a greater degree of implementation of rehabilitation programmes by inmates (18.8%), as well as blurring the differences between prisoners mainly due to their joint participation in group activities (17%). To strengthen the further positive effect of penitentiary system on social norms and behaviour of prisoners it is advisable to eliminate potential sources and possibilities for obtaining, accumulating and transferring illegal income by convicted persons. This action defined as main tool to mitigate the subculture phenomenon and its impact of the rehabilitation process in penitentiary institutions.
In the modern socio-political reality, in the conditions of changing laws and reformation of the penal system, the economic optimization of activities of the establishments and bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and its employees becomes especially topical. The purpose of the article is to study implementation of the leading experience and innovational technologies into the activities of the penal system as a factor of economic optimization of financial and human resources. In the process of the research, the general and specific scientific methods were used. The author provides the examples of using innovational technologies by employees of the penal system in the process of execution of punishments: systems of electronic document turnover, program, and technical complex of automatized filing of special squad, video surveillance in the penal system establishments, etc. The successful execution of the tasks of the penal system and economic optimization of its activities will be stimulates by implementation of the experience of foreign penitentiary systems (preferable use of the cell-prison system, consideration of architectural peculiarities of prisons for saving human resources and security of an establishment, practice of functioning of private prisons, creation of the genetic data base, etc.). The result of the performed analysis is determination of basic professional requirements set to the employees of the penal system who implement innovations and the conditions that stimulate economic optimization of expenditures in the sphere of human and financial resources of the penal system.