The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-27
FRENCH PRISON LIFE
FRANCE FAR BEHIND THE TIMES IN
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS.
Survival of Medieval Cruelty and In
dinerence-Neglect of the Moral
Nature of Prisoners.


There are six prisons in Paris besides the
depot Che great Central station, as it may
be called, although its service is most COM
plicated), the concergerie used small
er depot for the convenience of the Courts
of Assizes and Appeals), and the military
prison, which is an establishment quite
apart. These six prisons are Mazas. Sainte-
Pelagie, Saint-Lazare, the Sante, and the
Grande and the Little Roquette.
Mazas was originally prison established
to make trial of the solitary confinement
system (known throughout Europe as the
Philadelphia plan). This purpose is now
abandoned. and Mazas remains technically
"a house of preventive detention" Pre-
ventive detention, in France. means the
holding Of an accused person for months
before his trial, which may never come
off. And Mazas is no other than modern
irresponsible bastile to serve the present
Governor of France. 1t is able to hold 1,26O
detenus, each in a separate CELL The prison
of Saint-Pelagie, with capacity for $50
prisoners, is supposed to receive (a) journal
lists condemned for political or other inn
proper writings, (b) prisoners for debt Tin
the cases where such Imprisonment still
exists. for nonpayment of fines and frauds
government monopolies. c) and prison.
of less than year. In Sainte-Pelagie these
three classes are kept separate, with sep
arate regime for EACH The prison of Saint
Lazare is exclusively for women. The Sante
is comparatively modern establishment.
the only one which the authorities dare
show to foreign visitors without shame.
1t holds $50 prisoners, condemned to terms
of less than a year. The Little Roquette is
us 70. of
45o. And the Grand Roquette, technically
the Depot of the Condemned is put down
in the guide books as 1.-The prison where
are detained temporarily those condemned
to reclusion hard labor pending their
transference to the central penitentiaries or
to the penal settlements of Cayenne New
Caledonia 1t has capacity of 40. and as
1T is perhaps the worst conducted prison in
the world a statement of the life led in 1t
may be interesting.
| When the newly-condemned criminal, pau
per or drunkard is walked at $50 a.. m. Of
his last morning al Mazas. and stands in a
huddled crowd of others like himself. tight
packed in dark, stuffy room beside the
greffe, !. e., the bookkeepers department,
awaiting transference, he is preoccupied
with but two things. The first is to smoke
up and give away what tobacco remains to
him-for there will be smoking over
there. Over there. over there-where? "A
la Grande.''-the Grand Roquette! A groan
bursts from the party Hot words
! They've no business to take us TO the
Grande! No one here has twelve months
| even! What do they care-the vaches"'
The prisoners first day at the Grande
Roquette begins with the last cigarette. His
| last day there ends with the first cigarette.
! his first purchase on his release. his first
| and almost self-sufficient consolation
The new prisoners are huddled in another
bleak, dark prison room. inside the Grande
] Roquette. Hours pass while they wait the
| convenience of bookkeepers and searchers.
! One by one they are called out identified by
| cursory head measurement. made 10 ac-
| knowledge that the account of the money
| found on them is correct, searched, stripped
and reclothed. Those having less than a
month of prison TO do are given liberty to
continue en- civil ali others must don prison
| clothes. shapelesS, of rough brown stuff, to
| be taken in or let out for the individual by
| the prison sewing man. They are marched
| to a shower bath, then marched to the cen
| trail workshop, where to make Roquette
! holiday, they are both shaved and clipped.
this in the presence of two hundred other
are again Shown favor. They keep their
| hair.
NEEDLESS MISERY.
Here there is nothing of the completeness
and smartness of an American prison. The
central workshop--where the shaving is
done. beside rickety stove, whose fire is
always going out, is a leprous little hail.
\
filth of decades. Two hundred prisoners are
cramped so closely together that they i'm
pede each others work. 1t is the mark OF
the Grand Roquette throughout. The Grande
Roquette-of which the world has heard SO
much in connection with the present-day
guillotine-is nothing but an old barracks
| transformed in the most scrinpy way into
| its modern use. Ii has not even a rain-pro-
| tected promenade for the forced walks OF
he prC
ers must eat i'm the church, beside the altar
! the sleeping cells have no heating appara-
| dams are undermined and overworked
| there is no attendant physician-a doctor
comes in for an hour day: every library
| book has lost pages. the library itself only
| numbering two hundred and fifty volumes
the compulsory education supposed to be
laid down by the law has been suppressed
| ana the sanitary conditions are those of a
badly-kept prison of the middle ages
The new prisoners squirm uneaslly on the
| benches assigned them, munching their
loaves of black bread brought with them
| from Mazas: holding up two fingers for per-
| mission TO go 10 the bucket for drink OF
water, in imitation of the other prisoners
| of their companions hair, boards and mus
taches. To one side fifty men are making
wire mousetraps; working with savage
polishes brass moldings further on another
| gang is simply cutting wire. They scarcely
glance at the newcomers They work fever
| ent even from the anxiety, regret and new
| born misery shown in the new mems faces
| 1t is a special look. Its cause is hunger.
Every one is hungry at the Grande Ro-
| quette, hungry while they work. hungry
| while they sleep. The clock has but tC
strike the hour Of p m. and you shall see
them tremble. starting to their feet, poor
| white-faced rogues. 1t is the dinner hour
the one meal of the day besides the soup
| prison type. At the tail of the procession
! they march to the church. 1t is across a
| great square, open courtyard, and the wood
| en- shoes which all must wear clang in q
| resonant unison across the Belgian-bloc
| laid waste. Into the church they clatter
| The sacred edifice is filled with rickety
| narrow tables, each with a dozen round tir
| basins filled with lukewarm beans or Other
vegetables. The altar is hidden by a can.
| opy, removed on Sundays.
| They take their seats and tin basins ir
| silence. There is a moments pause, anc
then begins the clatter of the wooder
| spoons For each prisoner, for his sole
outfit is furnished with (a) a wooden spoon
| Or a rough towel and (c) a red bandanns
| handkerchief The food of this one mea
| varies. Some days ii is a dish of beans
red beans; other days it is rice. lentils or
| general mass of scraps. On Sundays only
| the beany mess. Meat once a week. At thi:
| dinner the other food is bread Each pris
| oner receives a heavy round loaf OF blaci
| barley-and-rye in the morning on leavins
| his cell door. If he eats IL all up in the
| morning there is nothing left for noon OIL
| night Actually each prisoner carries nj!
| loaf with him, never quitting 1t through
| ont the day. at work, at the lavatory. IN
the promenades, at meal time and COINS
g. lie 81