Abstract: The subject of the study is the theoretical and legal aspects of the legal status of convicted mothers in Russia. The paper provides a consistent analysis of the problems of the legal status of convicted mothers and defines the vector of prospects for improving the social protection of motherhood in prisons. The purpose of the study is to comprehensively examine this institution in the modern penal system of the Russian Federation, identify current problems and develop the most optimal directions for modernizing current legislation and its application. To achieve this goal, the current state of maternity protection in institutions carrying out criminal penalties in the form of imprisonment was investigated, and problems were identified that hinder the comprehensive provision of the rights, freedoms and basic guarantees of convicted mothers while serving their sentences. When writing a scientific article, both general scientific and private scientific methods were widely used, including methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction, induction, analogy, comparative, formal legal, and a number of others. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that it is an independent study devoted to the current problems of the implementation of the legal status of convicted mothers, the prospects for its regulatory and organizational improvement in the current conditions. The novelty of the research results is of a dualistic nature. In the scientific and theoretical field: the social conditionality of maternity protection in places of deprivation of liberty is argued; specific problems that reduce the effectiveness of the correction of convicted mothers are identified. In the practice: in order to improve the institution of penitentiary motherhood, the author suggests measures to adjust the penal enforcement law. Based on the results of the study, the following results were identified that can be implemented in the activities of bodies and institutions of the penal enforcement system of the Russian Federation: it is recommended to extend the minimum possible shortened periods (the institute of parole) to convicted pregnant women or women with children under four years of age who have committed crimes of moderate severity; proposed measures that contribute to increasing the authority of medical workers in correctional institutions and aimed at eliminating the personnel shortage of specialists in the field of medicine in correctional institutions; the creation and implementation of highly specialized, thematic comprehensive programs for providing psychological assistance to convicted mothers in penitentiary institutions is justified.