ENThe official Russian statistics for March 2020 shows that more than every second crime in Russia was committed by a person previously convicted of real punishment in the form of imprisonment. The author considers promising areas for improving national legislation and public practice that can lead to a decrease in the rate of such a relapse. One of the reasons for this situation is the problem of the placement of persons released from places of deprivation of liberty to work after release. Keywords: relapse, penitentiary, deprivation, freedom, crime, convicted, work, job, documents. [From the publication]