The issues of imprisonment as the most severe of the criminal penalties imposed on natural persons are a constant issue. At the same time, this is a very interesting issue, since the imprisonment in its unconditional form constitutes the most universal of the sanctions imposed on individuals, the most severe and executed under specific conditions of imprisonment - in institutions or in prisons. It is important to bear in mind that the Czech and Slovak regulations have common roots, common starting points that stem from several decades, which these now separate republics coexisted in one state unit. That is why it is important to know how the modern state prison has developed in the common state, as well as independently in the territory of the Czech Republic and Slovakia during the existence of the common state and during short periods of separation. The prison is undoubtedly influenced by these developments, as is the case with criminal and enforcement measures.