Many sources on the internet support it. For example, here it is claimed that they were chained, put in stocks and in towns they were kept in prisons, so many of them died in the way.
Yet these facts were discovered in the course of an inspection of 1710, so it seems it was a locally-invented practice. A decree issued in 1712 forbade this practice, and instruction of 1719 reorganized the supply of the recruits on their way.