高麗前期의 감옥조직과 그 기능에 관한 연구

Abstract

According to the existing Korean literatures, it seems that the Korean prison system from the viewpoint of the execution facilities and its operation, was originated in the Buyeo period, developed in the period of the Three States and nearly completed in the Korea Kingdom period, even though it was not perfect. The prison system in the Korean dynasty period was mainly divided into two parts such as central one related with the capital city Gaegyeong and local ones. Heongbu prison, in other words Heongbuok was one of the most essential prisons of the central prison system in the period. Heongbuok was designed to detain felony offenders such as political prisoners or thiefs. Jeonokseo, the subordinate office of Heongbu directly supervised the criminals transferred to Heongbuok, however, Gaguso was responsible for arresting thiefs and keeping public security in the central area of Gaegyeong capital town. It also had prison on the premise. Gagusook different from Heongbuok was usually used to detain common criminals in Gaesung city such as robbers, burglars and assaulters. Meanwhile, local prisons were operated by Kesoogwan of Kyeong, Mok and Dohobu, therefore the local prisons constructed the systematic administration system with other area prisons. In particular, the prisoners were exposed to the unsanitary living condition and inhumane treatment, for example the numbers of dead criminals in prison owing to diseases was larger than those of dead criminals owing to executions. This type of prison operation system in the early Korean dynasty period changed to Soonmaso in the late Korean dynasty period, because of the Chinese Yuan's interference. Soonmaso conducted various police activities such as thief arrest and rebellion prevention, so-called Podogumran. Soonmaok(or Soongumok) established in Soonmaso played a leading role of the prison administration system, and also the operation system of local prisons begun to change due to the alteration of local administration system. Therefore, it is necessary to study the administration system and function in the late Korean dynasty period with specific and deep research.