The concept of development of the penal system of the Russian Federation until 2020 indicates the need for new modern approaches in organizing educational work with prisoners. The need for an individual approach is due to the fact that any effect on a person is refracted through his characteristics, “internal conditions” and is aimed at studying, encouraging or punishing, correcting or shaping and developing the behavior properties of a particular convict. The essence of this approach is the flexible use by the teacher of various forms and methods of educational impact in order to achieve optimal results of the correctional process. Effective forms and methods of individual educational work in penal practice include the method of character reconstruction aimed at teaching convicts productive behaviors, developing the ability to take responsibility for their behavior in various life situations; a method of communicative regulation aimed at developing the communicative sphere of prisoners; individual trainings with convicts of various categories (individual pedagogical exercises and tasks, questioning (testing, conversation, individual consultations), during which convicts receive answers to their questions; a method of alternating organizational tasks, which allows solving such problems as teaching convicts elementary managerial skills, ways of interacting with people, as well as understanding the essence of the positions of both the organizer of his own behavior and his subordinate; strengthening the emotional field of joint creative affairs, providing a special set of psychological tools aimed at enhancing emotional stress, developing sincerity, emotional closeness, emotional elevation of the convicted person (pleasant communication, approval of creative finds, psychological support); reflexive self-education method, when using which deeper psychological mechanisms are used that promote personality self-regulation), etc. The educational impact is carried out taking into account the age and individual characteristics of the person, the level of development of his moral upbringing, constant observation, studying the changes in human qualities in the life process of the correctional institution. The advantage of using various forms and methods during the implementation of an individual approach in working with convicts is that they are aimed at identifying and mobilizing the internal and external resources of the person. An individual approach to correction is one of the effective ways to help the convict, since any educational impact reaches the goal, if refracted through specific personality traits, helps to identify individual characteristics and social stereotypes of activity, predicting the behavior and effectiveness of the correction process.