Research is devoted to the consideration of the basic stages of formation of criminal punishment system in terms of the criminal legislation of the Russian empire in 19 th century.

In the article the authors conduct a thorough analysis of the definitions of alternative types of punishments in the criminal law of the Russian empire in 19 th century. Special attention is paid to the analysis and comparison of alternative sentences, their place in the hierarchy of penalties, and punitive components of alternative punishments.

The article describes the features of the destination and the execution of criminal penalties in the form of return to the penitentiary convict companies of civil authorities in the Russian Empire. It is noted that it was quite a severe punishment. At the same time there has been a detailed its suspension control ing both in the criminal and criminal-executive legislation, which in certain ways strengthened legal guarantees prisoners.

The reduction of the period of incarceration and early release from the convict labor gangs of civil authorities were a common practice for these places of detention, provided by a number of legal acts: the decree of 1834 “On determining the period of stay the vagrants in convict labor gangs of civil authorities in Novorossiysk region”, 22 October 1836: “On the age of criminals, awarded, instead of referring to the settlement, to return in the military service”, the regulation on 15 August 1845 “On the correctional convict labor gangs of civil authorities, decrees April 17, 1863 “On some changes in the present system of criminal and correction penalties”, October 19, 1863.

The decision was made by the head of the department and submitted to the trustees committees for final decision. The reduction of the prison term used as an exceptional measure to reduce the contingent of places of detention.

Key words: punishment, criminal policy, punishment types, humanism of criminal punishment, criminal and executive legislation.

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