The legal basis for transferring the penal system to the jurisdiction Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire at the end of the XIX century

The item of this work is to analyze comprehensively the causes and problems of the first transfer of the penitentiary system from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire, and to give an historical and legal assessment of this event. The transfer of the system of places of detention from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire has become one of the most significant and at the same time controversial events in the history of the criminal-executive policy of the Russian state. It should be noted that the places of detention in Russia have traditionally been the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Police, while the Ministry of Justice had little to do with the administration of penitentiary institutions. In this case, the reformers proceeded from the West European experience. Therefore, the fact of transfer of the Main Prison Administration to the Ministry of Justice was estimated by contemporaries ambiguously. On the contrary, representatives of penitentiary science, who studied the West European experience in the organization of penitentiary systems, Professor S.V. Poznyoshev, I.Ya. Foinitsky, N.S. Tagantsev advocated the transfer of the Chief Prison Administration to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire, based on the position of establishing greater legitimacy in places of detention, less militarization of the process of enforcement of criminal penalties. The basic ideas underlying the legislative acts on the transfer of the penitentiary system to the Ministry of Justice were worked out by the Special Commission under the chairmanship of Senator N.S. Tagantseva. The most important condition for the transfer was that, without changes, the general principle of the central administration of the penitentiary system-the status, terms of reference and principles of the Main Prison Administration, was maintained. The main prison directorate functioned in the system of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Empire on the basis of the principles developed as a result of the prison reform of 1879. The transition of the prison system to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice allowed creating favorable conditions for overcoming the crisis state of the prison system. In the person of the Minister of Justice, two important principles were combined, necessary for the execution of punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty, the humanization of the prison: the reform of the penitentiary system and the creation of a new legislative framework aimed at improving the execution of criminal sentences. Penal policy at a new stage of its implementation is becoming more balanced. This manifests itself in the coordination of actions between various law enforcement agencies: the court, the prosecutor's office, the prison inspectorate, the police, the trustees' committees in the interests of the correct application of regulatory legal acts, and the creation of conditions for the execution of penalties.

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