The article presents the analysis of medical, social and organizational problems to ensure the safety of convicts held in correctional institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. There has been stated the increasingly negative effect of the criminal environment on persons held in the above mentioned institutions. Socio-demographic and criminogenic factors are the most significant among the identified problems. Much attention is paid to ensuring the health of persons held in prisons in the Russian Federation, and to the importance of medical safety in the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia to ensure the security of the convicted in the correctional institutions. In modern conditions there has been found a significant deterioration of the epidemiological situation in prisons (both in Russia and in the world) due to the large-scale spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19). It is proposed to intensify sanitary and educational work among the convicted contingent and employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia