Author(s): Dănuț Viorel Presură / Language(s): Romanian
Issue: 1/2020
This article aims to reconstruct as much as possible, following access to the documents of the time but also other sources, a relevant image of the location, conditions of detention, nature of crimes, prison population and its nationality, security guards in the Alba Iulia penitentiary in the period 1907 - 1968. An element of novelty of this work is given by the fact that the presentation of the prison in Alba Iulia is based on original sources found in various holdings of the National Archives; the documentary holdings of the Alba Iulia penitentiary from the National Archives, Alba branch - (with the inherent difficulties of translating and adapting to modern language some documents written in Hungarian for the period 1907-1919), documents kept by the Archive of the National Administration of Penitentiaries. Also, other sources for this article come from the Hungaricana online portal where the Virtual Collections was discovered, with unique documents issued by the Hungarian administration in Transylvania, until 1918. We can say that this research is an unexplored field because information on the prison, then the penitentiary in Alba Iulia, is presented only tangentially in various works. Generally, it only refers to the existence and history of this settlement, which is the motivation of this approach. The present analysis shows that the penitentiary in Alba Iulia, originally built to satisfy the criminal policy of the dual Austro-Hungarian state, continues in the interwar period and, later in the Communist period, to be a tool under state patronage, serving both criminal purposes but also political. The institution is experiencing an obvious development, as a result of its expansion and modernisation, especially after the 50s, an element demonstrated by the increase in the number of detainees. However, in its case, during the Communist period, the same abuses did not occur, as those in the famous Communist prisons: Aiud, Gherla, Sighet, Pitești, etc. Rather, the policy of managing the huge workforce was respected – especially, by setting up the three external detention sections in Mintia, Bârcea Mare and Deva. Therefore, the Alba Iulia prison turned, in time, into a regional penitentiary, of approximately medium size, - required by the Communist regime as a result of the decisions of the Bucharest leadership enslaved to Soviet interests demanding the punishment of all opponents and political opponents. It can also be considered a transit prison.
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