Rodzaje ośrodków pozbawienia wolności w Królestwie Polskim
Types of detention centres in the Kingdom of Poland

Summary/Abstract: In the 19th century imprisonment became the fundamental sanction in many European criminal and penal codes, including that of the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland). In the face of these changes an extensive discussion on the reform of the whole penitentiary system began in the state. Reformers of the Polish penal system, notably Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Ksawery Potocki, and Fryderyk Skarbek proposed numerous concepts. In such circumstances, central administration attempted to create a system of penitentiary institutions. The article describes six diff erent centres of detention which operated in the Kingdom of Poland: police custody for the detention of people arrested by the police and convicted by courts operating by city mayors; detention centres operating by the Ordinary Police Courts, for criminals detained by the court decision in the course of the so-called elementary investigation, and criminals convicted for embezzlement and smuggling; civil custody for debtors to force them to perform their obligations; remand institutions for the detention of people awaiting sentencing; and criminal prisons for those already convicted. For those convicted for the gravest crimes the so-called roty aresztanckie (prisoner bases) were introduced in 1834.

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