In the article, the author examines the system of places of deprivation of liberty in the Belarusian provinces of the western edge of the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. Attention is focused on the fact that after the three sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the XVIII century and the annexation of all lands of the territory of the modern Republic of Belarus to the Russian Empire, places of imprisonment in the Belarusian provinces in particular and the Russian penitentiary system as a whole in the nineteenth century. slowly, but purposefully and centrally, they began to reform both in organizational and legal, and in other directions, including in the issue of organizing the correction (re-socialization) of those sentenced to imprisonment. At the same time, despite the measures taken by the Main Prison Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, the situation in both Belarusian and Russian places of detention during the period under study remained difficult, since legislators and law enforcement officers had to simultaneously solve a significant number of long-overdue tasks and problems in this area, taking into account socio-political and financial and economic situations in the external and internal directions in the country. It is noted that the system of places of deprivation of liberty in the territory of the Belarusian provinces at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries consisted of 49 penitentiary institutions, most of which were prisons located in county and provincial cities. The author concludes that during the period under study, the system of places of deprivation of liberty in the Belarusian provinces of the western edge of the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries was generally formed and centrally managed in conditions of constant improvement of its activities in various directions.