NCJ Number
174830
Date Published
1996
Length
243 pages
Annotation
The many lurid accounts of prison life in late imperial Russia have conditioned readers to expect tales of crime and punishment at the very worse whenever the subject of prisons emerges; yet, the Russian government made considerable strides toward modernizing its correctional system during the half- century before the 1917 revolution.
Abstract
Determined to choose rehabilitation over such brutal forms of punishment as flogging and mutilation, Russian prison reformers attempted to redeem and retrain the country's criminals. At the same time, they fought to overturn the establishment's assumptions about crime and punishment. In looking at what became a long-term struggle against barbarism and inhumanity between 1863 and 1917, the author discusses the creation, management, and accomplishments of Russia's Main Prison Administration. He explores broader reform issues within Russia's government and society, especially after the 1905 revolution when arguments on such topics as parole and probation emerged in public debate. In addition, consideration is paid to the politics of punishment and prison reform, the movement to abolish corporal punishment, and prison administration in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. References and notes