Genesis of the concept of correctional punishment: From antiquity to modern times

Abstract

The article examines the genesis of the idea of correctional punishment. The authors analyse the concepts and views on the purpose of punishing Plato, Roman lawyers, European humanists, as well as English prison reformers of the XVIII century. The relevance of this topic for domestic legal science is due to the ongoing transformation of approaches to determining the purpose of punishment, the revision of strategies in the field of punishments in foreign penology and the development of correctional policy, taking into account new goals. The era of correctional punishment, admittedly, was the XIX century. The basis of penitentiary discourse during this period was the belief that with the help of a proper prison regime, segregation, humane treatment and spiritual care, it would certainly be possible to correct convicts. Although the ideas of correctional punishment appear in ancient times and acquire their practical implementation in the medieval Christian tradition of European states, the idea of the primacy of English and American prison reformers in the establishment of penitentiary systems prevails in historiography. An unbiased analysis of knowledge systems and the rejection of the methodology of ideological bias allowed proving that the penitentiary systems of the XIX century only developed the models of prison discipline that began in previous periods. In fact, there was a revival of the ancient paternalistic concept of correctional punishment, supplemented by a religious doctrine that provided for the influence not on the body, but on the soul of the offender to repent, correct and, as a result, return to society. At the end of the XVIII century, the secular authorities adopted these disciplinary models. They will be most widely implemented in correctional and penitentiary houses in England during the prison reform of the 70s and 90s and will later become the basis for the formation of penitentiary systems that will be implemented in practice in most countries of the world during the XIX-early XX centuries