Development of the legislation on execution of punishments in the form of imprisonment in Russia in the XIXth - the beginning of the XXth centuries

Introduction: for the modern development of the criminal-executive legislation, it is important to study the historical experience of development of the legislation on the enforcement of sentences of deprivation of liberty. Therefore, the aim of the study is a comprehensive analysis of legal regulation of execution of punishment in imprisonment places in the Russian Empire and the elaboration of proposals to improve existing legislation. Materials and Methods: Methodological basis of research was the dialectic method of cognition, which allowed us to consider the emergence and change of normative legal acts, regulating activity of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire. The paper uses the comparative historical method, which allowed considering the legal regulation of execution of punishment of deprivation of freedom in various periods of development of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire; the formal-legal method, presenting the ability to interpret regulatory and legal acts regulating the activities of penitentiary institutions etc. Results: the paper shows the legal regulation of execution of punishment in prison of the Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to changes in the conditions of detention in the evolution of the legislation. Trends improvements in the prison system in the process of development of prison legislation in the pre-revolutionary period. Together with the national legislation deals with the normative legal acts issued by the regional (local) level. Discussion and Conclusions: based on the analysis of imperial legislation by the author makes offers on perfection of the modern criminal-executive legislation.