REINSERȚIA SOCIALĂ PRIVIND PERSOANELE ÎNCARCERATE ÎN UNELE DOCUMENTE ARDELENE
Social reinsertion of imprisoned persons as depicted in some Transylvanian documents

Summary/Abstract: Society has always adopted punishments that corresponded to a given historical period. One has to adapt to others around him, this is what is expected. This expectation has been solidified over time, fixed in rules, in standards that essentially refer to human behavior and are named «rules of conduct». At first, these rules were just in people’s minds. Some society members were aware of what others were expecting. Forensic science explicitly retraces millennia of slavery and feudal social organization, the use of the epitome of death, mutilation, corporal punishment and social embarrassment. Contrary to these methods, used until the end of the Middle Ages, society then opened itself towards a new approach to the application of punishment, to the awareness of the offender and his attempt to rehabilitate, his active and real reintroduction into the community. The interest shown by our forerunners in the social reintegration of detainees can be discovered by examining special documents kept in archival funds. By analyzing the content of administrative papers concerning Transylvanian prisons at the end of the 19th century, we will present obvious evidence that their criminal policies accepted progressive Western influences, given the fact that they tried to create a socially-positive behavior in detainees in order to eliminate, as far as possible, criminal recidivism. These methods might seem surprising for the times, but they confirm that changes in the perspective concerning convicted persons manifested since the mid-nineteenth century.

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