Aim. To consider the contribution of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate to the development of the Resolution of 1928 «On the punitive policy and the state of places of detention». Methodology. The archival materials are analyzed, giving the idea of the specific proposals of the Workers’ Committee to improve the legislation on the judicial-investigative system, as well as the system of execution of punishment and regulation of criminal proceedings. The author compares the wording from the documents of the Rabkrin with the text of the decree under investigation in order to find out the extent of the Rabkrin’s initiatives could influence its text. The resolution «On punitive policy and the state of places of detention» is considered as the first experience of the Soviet state’s approbation of new ideas and approaches proposed by a number of departments (People’s Commissariat of Justice, Rabkrin, etc.) to optimize the work of law enforcement agencies and justice bodies taking into account the internal political situation of that time. Results. The study of the decree «On punitive policy and the state of places of detention», as well as the history of its preparation is a great contribution to the history of law. The undertaken research made it possible to assess with great completeness not only the problems of the Soviet law enforcement system at the end of the NEP, but also the complex nature of the resolution of these problems by the legislator. In a number of cases, the negative consequences of the implementation of the innovations proposed by the Rabkrin are revealed, which makes it possible to more objectively assess the state of the judicial and investigative system in the USSR in the 30s. Research implications. The results of the study contribute to the study of the history of state control bodies, as well as the Soviet criminal process and corrective labor law. This article will be useful to historians of law, specialists in the field of criminal procedure, as well as the execution of punishment.