Promjena Zatvorske Paradigme? / the Change of the Prison Paradigm

Abstract

The reform of the legal system that the Ottoman Empire conducted in the 1850s was systematically implemented in the period that followed, with an attempt to introduce new legal provisions concerning prisons in all parts of the Empire, including Bosnia. Displeasure of the western powers who had insisted on changes to the prison practices in the Ottoman Empire, the pace of which had been slow, was used by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy following the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Having established that the existing conditions in BiH prisons were “miserable”, the new government promised radical changes. However, the question is if the changes really were ferocious in the decisive years in which the Ottoman administration was replaced by Austro-Hungarian? If so, to what extent was the prison paradigm changed? A more serious investigation of the prison system of a certain administration demands an analysis of a specific group within the prison population. One such group are women that needed a different treatment compared to other prisoners: a separate accommodation, female, not male, supervision, as well as special measures during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. By using the documents from ZVS and ZMF funds, the paper aims to investigate if the Austro-Hungarian administration managed to achieve significant results in the treatment of female inmates in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first years of the monarchy’s rule. Although the prison system and the treatment of prisoners are an important indicator of the civilizational advancement of a society, the local historiography has not paid significant attention to these issues. This paper is trying to fill that void.