The Mykolayiv Committee of trustees over prisons as a body of prison economy management and trusteeship of prisoners

Abstract

The history of the Committee of trustees over prisons on the territory of Ukraine, controlled by the Russian Empire, in the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century, is up-to-date at the current stage of the penitentiary system reforms in Ukraine, when it is needed to establish the public control over penitentiary institutions and to develop the transparency of their activities. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of scientific works devoted to the problem. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to discover the activity of the Mykolayiv Committee of trustees over prisons and its role and the actual influence on the situation in the Mykolayiv prisons. The activity of the Mykolayiv Committee of trustees over prisons, despite its shortcomings, generally had a positive impact on the situation in the prison institutions in Mykolayiv. In fact, the Committee supported people in prisons, reminding them that they were still members of the community. The church, school, library, teaching, reading, working together in the garden, in workshops and outside prisons, in the city, at least contributed a little to socialization of prisoners and maintained their connection with the outside world to which they were to return. The state, pushing the prisons to be at almost full self-financing, prompted the prison administration to use forced labor. Money earned by prisoners were directed to provide of prisons and to give financial support for prison officials. And yet, any work contributed to re-education. Unlikely prisoners were to be seating without work and waiting for charity. While working, they made a little money for their living as well. However, the prison administrators abused their official position. Using low-cost prisoners’ labor, it turned prisons into commercial enterprises with forced labor. In this way, the prison superiors nullified the Committee’s efforts in the sphere of prisoners’ rehabilitation and hampered the humanization of the Russian Empire penitentiary system.