НАСТАНАК БЕОГРАДСКОГ КАЗНЕНОГ ЗАВОДА
ORIGINS OF THE BELGRADE PENITENTIARY INSTITUTION

Summary/Abstract: The history of the Serbian penal system is closely connected with the question of Criminal Law enforcement and management of convicted individuals. The ordinary way to deal with the most notorious Serbian criminals (if not to simply place them before the firing squad) was to put them in chains and send them to serve prolonged sentences in some of the few convict facilities of the 19th century. The only problem with that solution was a serious shortage of space, needed to accommodate a surge of new convicts in the second half of the 19th century. Known for its capability to find a flexible solution, Serbian authorities at the time of the Regency were sometimes prone to exploit even old medieval forts, instead of using vast sums of money to deal with the same problem. Founded in late 1868, the Belgrade Penitentiary Institution was the most unusual among the state prisons. Also, it was the most populated prison centre for convicted criminals in the Principality of Serbia. It was based in the centre of the oldest city fortress, not far from the state borders and in the closest proximity of the civilian quarters. Almost one thousand of the hardest convict were placed under its roof. Curiously enough, those convicts were not kept in well-organised prison premises or even cells. Instead, they were simply crammed in the old parts of the Belgrade fort, in a place specifically known as casemates. There, they could be kept in large joint prison chambers, with no regard to their previous conviction, age or personal criminal biographies. The main reason for upholding this unusual solution was the lack of modern prison capacities and, of course, financial reasons. However, the political pressure to find a safe place to isolate the ever-larger convict community was the main reason to use this old and dark fortress dungeon in future years. For almost five decades it was the only convenient place, spacious enough to place vast numbers of proved criminals, most of whom were murderers, robbers, thieves and brigands. Nonetheless, it was obvious that this solution had many unfortunate shortcomings. Tuberculosis, typhoid fever and other contagious diseases went hand in hand with numerous infectious influences among prisoners. Those disadvantages became even more frequent due to the very architectural position of the casemates. The lack of strict disciplinary measures enabled an easy and frequent pass of criminal knowledge among the inmates, and led to numerous cases of recidivism. Needless to say, this old-fashioned type of congregate prison was abandoned a long time ago, in most of the modern European states. Unfortunately enough, the case of Serbian prisons was quite the opposite. Several official reform efforts to improve the prison system were rejected, one after another, in the course of several decades. Being too expensive and too complicated for the government to give its approval and to institute them, casemates of the Belgrade fortress were in use for almost half a century, until the very beginning of the First World War. They were the main reason for the outburst of criminal ideology by the end of the 19th and first decades of the 20th century Serbia.

• Details
• Contents