The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-11-12
Soviet Prisons


lorganized along lines in conformance with the
most advanced ideas of prison practice. The
object of Soviet places of confinement is to re-
form the criminal through work and education
and fit him to take his place in society OF
workers. The idea is not to punish but to cor
rect, and the very term punishment" has been
dropped from Soviet jurisprudence. The prisons
received from the old regime were totally unfit
for the new system. There was no provision in
them for shops and schools and the Soviet Gov
eminent, while forced to use the old prisons
temporarily, has gradually been replacing them
by modern institutions provided with class rooms,
auditoriumS, workshops, laboratories, and land
for agricultural purposes.
Several fundamental steps have been taken to
assist in making the prison system serve primar-
lily for the social rehabilitation of the individual
rather than for punishment. A recent decree by
the Council of Peoples Commissars calls for the
replacement of closed prisons, as the basic form
of confinement for wrongdoers, by settlements in
which the wrongdoers may regain normal life
and be restored to productive work.
Prisoners with special trade are permitted
to work at their own trade for wages while serv-
ing their sentences. Those without trade are
given technical training When they leave prison
every effort is made to help them find the kind
of work they are fitted to do. Already many
previous convictions to their record being con-
verted into skilled and reliable industrial workers
In addition to training for special trades the
prisoners also receive systematic general educa-
ton. Every place of confinement has its classes,
club, cinema theatre, radio, and so on. The edu-
cational work is conducted largely by those of
the prisoners who have received the necessary
educational preparation. Each settlement pub
fishes its wall newspaper describing wildly the
life and work of the place. The prisoners elect
their own editors.
The Soviet prison regime is based upon
strictly individualized treatment of each pris-
oner. The prisoners social and economic back
ground, education, age. health, and fitness for
this or that form of labor carefully studied.
Only after a thorough examination carried out
by doctor, psychatrist, and criminologist is the
prisoner given work assignment Soviet Grim
inology and penitentiary practice is based, not
on the acceptance of the criminal type" of the
old school of criminology, but on the considera-
ton in each case of the various factors leading
to the offense
Special laboratories and Offices for the study
of the prisoners background and personality
have been established in the larger cities of the
Soviet Union, while in Moscow there is Central
State Criminoogy Institute. This institute en-
braces all the foremost scientists in the Soviet
net, Liublinsky Gannushkin and Kanabich, well
known for their work in this field, take an active
part in the work of the institute
Although indeterminate sentences have not yet
been introduced in the U.SSR, the court SEN
tence is not fixed and final and there are various
provisions for the reduction of sentences. Chief
of these is the custom of counting every two
days of work three days of imprisonment,
which automatically reduces the term by almost
one-third. Paroles and pardons are used extern
sively, SO that practically all prisoners are re-
leased before the expiration of their terms Re-
leases parole frequently granted for good
behavior. The law permits the different repub-
lies to release prisoners parole after serving
e-thrd of their terms Finally, the system of
leaves of absence for prisoners of the middle
and highest grades is applied extensively. Every
prisoner passes through three grades--an initial,
middle, and highest grade The grade is fixed
with view of the danger to society of the
criminal after the expiration OF from one-fourth
to one-half of the sentence. Prisoners Of the
middle grade receive seven days leave year.
those of the highest grade are given fourteen
days. All prisoners who have farms are al
lowed to go home for the entire summer season
regardless of the grade to which they belong, the
leave period being counted as part of the term
of imprisonment There is no case on record
OF any prisoner falling to return from his leave.
Paroles, leaves, and other privileges are
granted by supervisory commission made up Of
representatives Of various public and labor or
CARNATIONS and of government officials, the two
flrst-named groups constituting the majority Of
the membership.
Life sentences do not exist in the u S. S. r.
Soviet legislation provides for a maximum term
Of imprisonment of ten years. At the present
time new criminal code Of laws is being adj
opted, reducing this period to I'VE years.