It claims succession from the Main Prisons Directorate of the Russian Empire founded in 1879, and directly succeeds the correctional services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union including the Gulag agency.

Following the October Revolution, a new prison administration was established by the Bolsheviks with a system composed mainly of forced labor camps across the Soviet Union.

In 1960, the Main Administration for Execution of Punishments (GUIN) was founded under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union following the dissolution of the Gulag agency.

As of 2018, Russia had one of the highest incarceration rates in the world at 416 per 100,000 people with a prison population ranked fourth behind the United States, China, and Brazil.

between 2000 and 2018, Russia’s prison population dropped substantially with a decline of over 400,000 inmates, thanks among other factors, to the socioeconomic reforms and overall increase in standards and quality of life.