This scientific article examines the history of the emergence and development of this type of penitentiary institution such as a prison on the territory of Kazakhstan, an analysis of the punishment system, its content, goals, main directions of development, without which it is impossible to trace the process of formation of the system of execution of criminal punishments. The article notes that punishment, as a form of coercion, is widely used in solving social-class contradictions. Since the traditional Kazakh society was patriarchal-feudal, it was immanent in the coexistence of the institutions of the clan system (pre-class relations) and the feudal formation (class society), these phenomena did not acquire an antagonistic character. Herefore, in the pre-Russian period, there were no prisons on the territory of Kazakhstan. The article traces the origin, formation and development of the system of prison institutions in Kazakhstan in a historical and legal aspect. Based on a substantive study of this issue, the authors come to the conclusion that penitentiary institutions, like any other social institutions, have evolved in close connection with the needs of social development. The article clearly traces the application of the principle of universality of the general civilization approach in the implementation of the organizational and legal foundations of prison activities. Throughout the history of the development of the penitentiary system in Kazakhstan, the experience of advanced countries was taken into account. The authors believe that the practice of Soviet prisons of rigidly isolating the criminal from society has an insufficient corrective effect. After all, the very meaning of the term “poenitentiarius” (penitentiary) in Latin means “corrective”. In this regard, they propose amending the rules of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan in relation to prisons and include in its activities some fragments of the progressive system of imprisonment, taking into account the best practices of the developed democracies of the world.