Organization of correctional institutions for juveniles in pre-revolutionary Russia

The prevention of juvenile delinquency is one of the most problematic questions for modern society. Correctional shelters were established after the signing the Judicial Charters in 1864 as special institutions for juvenile delinquents in order to prevent them from serving their sentences together with habitual criminals. These institutions had its own specific character: firstly, no uniform approaches or standards for their organization and functioning, secondly, the majority of these institutions were private and, therefore, it affected their interaction with the prison authorities, and, thirdly, the aim of correctional education and teaching professional skills had a greater extent than punitive principle. Nowadays it is necessary to take the experience of the pre-revolutionary institutions into consideration for the realization of prison reform.