Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom R. S. F. S. R., Labor Correction Code (RSFSR). August 1, 1933
Part II
Deprivation of Freedom
Chapter 1
Places of Detention
28. Places of detention are:
- (a) Isolators for those under investigation.
- (b) Deportation prisons.
- (c) Corrective colonies; factory colonies, agricultural colonies, colonies of mass work and penalty colonies.
- (d) Institutions for applying measures of a medical nature to those deprived of freedom (institutes of psychiatric examination, colonies for tubercular and other patients).
- (e) Institutions for minors (persons under age) deprived of freedom (factory schools of the industrial and agricultural type).
A. Isolators for Persons Under Investigation
29. Isolators for those under investigation are intended only for persons who are under investigation or on trial, and are organized as independent places of detention or as departments at other places of detention.
In isolators the above-mentioned persons are detained only until the sentence of the court or a resolution of some other competent organ comes into force.
In accordance with this, the regime and the rules of confinement and of internal order of the isolators are framed accordingly.
B. Deportation Prisons (Forwarding Prisons)
30. Deportation prisons are organized either as independent institutions or as departments at other places of detention.
31. Persons under investigation are placed in deportation prisons separately from convicts.
32. All deported prisoners (prisoners en route to their place of exile), if they are still under investigation, are subject to all regulations of the system established for persons under investigation, and to those who have been already sentenced are applied all the regulations of the system established for those prisons in which these convicts were confined before they were moved.
C. Corrective Colonies
33. Factory colonies are organized for the purpose of inculcating labor habits to the prisoners and raising their labor qualification; in order to bring a political-educational and disciplinary influence to bear on them; and to secure their adaptation to life and work in an organized collective on the basis of industrial labor.
Agricultural colonies are organized for the same purpose on the basis of agricultural labor.
Prisoners of working class origin are sent to various colonies according to their labor habits.
The production of agricultural colonies is used for the needs of the system of corrective institutions. Any surplus of goods is delivered to trading organizations.
34. To colonies for mass work [lumber camps, road construction camps] which are situated in district localities, are sent prisoners who belong to class hostile elements, and also prisoners who are toilers but who are especially class dangerous by the nature of the crime committed by them, necessitating the application to them of a more severe regime.
To other colonies of mass work can be sent both the abovementioned categories of prisoners and also toilers who have committed crimes which are not of an especially class-dangerous nature; to this latter category of prisoners the regime applied is the same as that established for prisoners in agricultural colonies.
Penalty Corrective Colonies
35. To penalty corrective colonies are sent those prisoners who previously were confined in other colonies and who have shown a systematic insubordination to the established regime or labor discipline.
36. Transfer to penalty colonies is effected as a disciplinary measure exclusively by order of the Chief Department of Corrective Institutions for those republics, both on the initiative of these institutions and on the initiative of Inspection Commissions.
37. The regime in penalty colonies is framed on the basis of strict isolation of the prisoners within the limits established by the present Code.
Prisoners who are sent to penalty colonies for the purpose of household service in them are subject to the regime established for factory colonies.
Part III
Exile Combined with, Corrective Labor
100. Serving of the sentence of exile combined with corrective labor is organized in places of exile by departments of correction institutions of the krai, oblast, autonomous republic or autonomous oblast.
101. Those sentenced to exile with corrective labor do such work
- (a) as hired workers in state, cooperative and social institutions and enterprises, by contracts entered into by these enterprises and institutions with correction institutions;
- (b) in industrial enterprises, especially organized for this purpose by correction institutions;
- (c) on mass work organized by contracts between correction institutions and government and cooperative organs;
- (d) in colonies for mass labor.
102. Those who are serving a term of exile with corrective labor cannot leave the boundaries of the locality intended for their dwelling without the permission of correction organs, and within the boundaries of this locality they are not limited in the choice of place where they and their families may reside.
Those who are serving a sentence of exile with corrective labor in colonies of mass labor are not subject to any restrictions such as are established for prisoners.
103. Those who are serving a term of exile with corrective labor are placed on the same basis in respect of conditions and payment of labor as workers of corresponding qualification working on labor contracts with a deduction of 15 to 5% from their basic earnings in order to cover the organizational expenses of correction organs (depending on the time passed in exile).
107. Should the person who is serving a term of exile with corrective labor lose his working capacity, the Inspection Commission on the basis of conclusions of medical experts files a petition to the nearest People’s Court to replace the remaining term of exile by other measures of social protection.
108. The following disciplinary measures are applied to those who are serving a term of exile with corrective labor and violate the established order and labor discipline:
(a) remark,
(b) reprimand,
(c) arrest up to twenty days,
(d) transfer to a more distant place of exile.
109. In case of a willful avoidance of work the correction institution sets before the People’s Court at the place of execution of the sentence the question of replacing exile by confinement in prison.
Collection of Acts of the RSFSR, 1933, No. 48, Art. 208.
Supplement
On the transfer of labor correction institutions of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR Resolution of the TsIK and SNK of the USSR
October 27, 1934
The Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars have decided:
1. All correction institutions (prisons, isolators, correction colonies and the bureau of correction work without deprivation of freedom), which are at present managed by the People’s Commissariat of Justice of each constituent republic, are to be transferred to the competence of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs and its local organs.
2. All chief departments of correction institutions at People Is Commissariats of Justice of the constituent republics are here-, by dissolved.
3. For the guidance of correction institutions, taken over from the People’s Commissariats of Justice, a Department of Prisons is formed within the Chief Department for corrective labor camps, exile settlements and places of detention at the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
On the transfer of correction institutions of the People’s
Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR to the competence of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR
Resolution of the VTsIK and SNK of the RSFSR
November 10, 1934
In accordance with the Resolution of the TsIK and SNK of the USSR of October 27, 1934, on the transfer of all corrective labor institutions of the People’s Commissariats of Justice to the competence of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (Collection of Laws of the USSR, 1934, No. 56, Item 421), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR have decreed:
1. To request the People’s Commissariat of Justice of the R. S. F. S. R. to transfer to the competence of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR and its local organs all correction institutions, prisons, isolators, correction colonies, bureaus for correction work, institutions for minor criminals and hospitals in the system of the principal board of corrective labor institutions of the People’s Commissariat of Justice.
2. The Chief Department of Corrective Labor Institutions of the People’s Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, and boards of correction institutions of People’s Commissariats of Justice in autonomous republics, krais and oblasts, are hereby dissolved.
3. To request the People’s Commissariat of Justice of the R. S. F. S. R. to present for the consideration of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR a project of changes in the legislation of the RSFSR, which follow from the transfer of correction institutions to the competence of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
Source: The Labor Correction Code of the RSFSR (London: Sweet and Maxwell, Ltd., 1936), pp. 11-13, 30-32, 43-45.