Odessa Women’s Department of the Board of Guards about Prisons: Creation and Features of Activity in the XIX century

Abstract

The article highlights the creation and features of the Odessa Women’s Branch of the Prison Guard Committee. It was established that the activities of the Odessa Women’s Branch of the Custody Committee on Prisons were conducted in accordance with the rules laid down for all such committees of the Russian Empire. Some tasks coincided with the tasks defined for the men’s departments of the trustees, but also had their own characteristics.

The Women’s Trusteeship Committee was opened to assist prisoners and those released from prisons; improving the morale of women prisoners; care for children in prisons with them. The Odessa committee tried to realize this goal by solving a number of tasks: 1. Improving the life and material condition of the premises; 2. Creating conditions for spiritual education; 3. Training of detainees in a certain profession; 4. Organization of health care. 5. Guardianship of young children of detainees. It was established that an important place in the activities of the Odessa Women’s Department was occupied by the selection of qualified personnel for the detention of women prisoners and for the women’s department of the prison hospital, the organization of conditions to improve hygiene, the acquisition of the profession of seamstress.

The management of the Women’s Department was described and it was established that it consisted mainly of the wives of highly respected officials and nobles. The Odessa Women’s Committee of Prisons has been headed by the wife of the Governor-General of Novorossiysk and Bessarabia E.K. Vorontsova, since its inception. Particular attention is paid to the position of warden in the women’s section of the prison castle.

On the example of statistical archival data for the first half of the XIX century. The number of women detainees and the types of crimes they committed were analyzed.