The development of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire 1801-1845 (based on the materials of the Vladimir province)

Due to the fact that the article examines the issues of legal regulation of the penitentiary system in the Russian Empire in the first half of the XIX century, the subject of the study is the organizational and legal foundations of the penal system in this period. The object of the study is the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire itself. The authors attempted a comprehensive analysis of normative legal acts affecting the penal enforcement system from 1801 to 1845, traced their implementation at the regional level, using the example of the Vladimir province as a territorial entity, which represented almost all the places of deprivation of liberty in the country at that time. The time frame is determined by the first attempts to reform the penitentiary system in the XIX century and the publication of the Code on Criminal and Correctional Punishments in 1845 – a kind of the first Russian criminal code. The analysis showed that the first half of the XIX century was a period of serious changes in legislation, the formation of a new penitentiary system in the country. It was then that the sectoral system of government was created, in which there was a place for institutions of the penal enforcement system. A prison trusteeship society arose, which aimed at the moral correction of convicts and improving their conditions of detention. The activities of prisons and prison companies were regulated, torture was prohibited, etc. Unfortunately, as it was revealed during the study, the implementation of many initiatives on the ground, in particular in the Vladimir province, was delayed due to traditional bureaucratic red tape and chronic lack of funds. Although, of course, it is worth noting the contribution of caring people to the difficult and thankless penitentiary work.

penitentiary system, penal enforcement system, prisoners, penitentiary law, places of detention, prison studies, Prison Care Society, exile, convict companies, prison locks