Development of the organizational system of the Hungarian Prison Service from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century

Abstract

In my study I present the changes in the management and the organization of the Hungarian penitentiary system from the second half of the 18th century to the 20th century. Particularly with regard to the modifications that had a significant influence on the development of our prisons, that followed the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise, later the new Penal Code named the Csemegi Codex entering into force and resulted in the development of a spectacular institution network development up until the turn of the century. The analysis of the 20th century includes the evaluation of the different time periods, first from the turn of the century to the 2nd World War. Then from 1945 to 1952, which includes the changes due to the Act II of 1950 coming into force, and furthermore the changes in the management organization that led to the supervision of the Prison Service to be transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Interior from March 1952. The period of 1952-1963 under the interior control may be mainly characterized by political reprisals and retaliations and resulted in numerous changes as well. In the period from 1963 to 2000 the administration and supervision of the Prison Service was brought to the Ministry of Justice again. Thanks to the changes in the legal policy of the era and the reform measures following the change of regime in 1989, many organizational changes were made that the reader could learn from the study.