Abstract: The authors examines the legal positions formulated by the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the compliance of Russian legislation and the practice of its application with the criteria of inadmissibility of cruel and humiliating treatment of convicts. Despite the termination of Russia's cooperation with European inter-state human rights bodies, the long experience of interaction with them has made it possible to identify certain shortcomings in the national penitentiary system and outline ways to eliminate them. A number of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights have been creatively interpreted in Russian legislation, and this has contributed to improving the legal status of persons sentenced to imprisonment. Based on a critical analysis of the key negative characteristics of the penal enforcement system, the authors identified the main directions of the impact of the decisions of the interstate human rights body on the formation of a new penal enforcement policy that contributes to improving the protection of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens serving a sentence of imprisonment. To date, the relevance of this has remained, although the legal positions of the European Court of Human Rights are not and have never been sources of Russian law. The improvement of penitentiary legislation is a significant direction of the criminal policy of the state, therefore, the author's conclusions are of interest for rule-making activities.