PLACES OF IMPRISONMENT OF CITIES AND COUNTIES ON UKRAINIAN LANDS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVI‒XVII CENTURIES

Abstract

In article standards of the Lithuanian-Russian legislation which regulated purpose of punishment in the form of imprisonment, procedures of serving of imprisonment, the device of places of the maintenance of prisoners are considered.

Complex usage of statutes of Great Lithuanian Duchy 1529, 1566, 1588, crown constitutions and judicial records enabled to trace the evolution of the institution of imprisonment during the XVI century, to determine the purpose of the mentioned penalty, the terms of imprisonment, to outline the range of offenses for commission of which was assumed and the persons to whom applied. Imprisonment as a form of punishment in this period was applied only to the nobility. The maximum term was a year and six weeks. Imprisonment for nobility was, primarily, shameful punishment, that harmed the chivalrous honor. From the end of the XV century one of the main points of aristocratic privileges were provisions, which in modern law is part of the presumption of innocence, namely the impossibility of detention without a court order. Pre-trial detention could be used to not settled nobles, own patrial, commercial farmers and townspeople.

Paper investigates the motives for use of imprisonment and pretrial detention, outlines the network of castle and city jails. Reconstructs Old Russ prison and Lithuanian ‒ Russ prison tower based on archaeological data and archival materials. Ancient Russ prisons were of two types: ground slash (porub) and earthen prison – cellar. Keeping criminals in underground cellars complied the mythological notion about imprisonment as a symbol of death. In the second half of the XVI century, accordance with the requirements of statutes of Great Lithuanian Duchy, in Ukrainian counties was formed a system of government prisons that which were located in a specially equipped castle towers. There were two modes of keeping criminals: at the «bottom» of the underground prison tower and at the «top» part. Place and conditions of imprisonment were dependent from the severity of the committed crime.

Analyzes the standards of the Lithuanian-Polish law, which regulated the question of such punishment as imprisonment, detention conditions of prisoners, and principles of the operation of castle prisons.