The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-08
PARIS PRISONS.
In France Person Is Deemed
Guilty Until He Proves Himself In
From CasseTs Family Magazine.

nOcent.
From Cassers Family Magazine.
The prison premises at the Depot of the
Prefecture are very insufficient, ami it is
blot ON Paris that such a place continues
to exist without Improvement. Anyone
almost might be obliged to pass through
the ordeal of a night at the depot. Mis-
takes have been made before now by the
French police; persons of I'M
doubted respectability and perfect
innocence, foreign visitors in par
ticular. have been arrested. and
when once in custody they cannot go free
until all the formalities have been fulfilled.
In France an accused person is deemed
guilty until he proves himself innocent.
and as this principle may press very hard
at times better arrangements should be
made at the Prefecture. There is one lit
tie room set apart for the better dressed Of
the captures brought by Black Maria; this
is called the Sale des habits noirs," the
room for decent coats, to which are sent
the outwardly respectable; these favored
folk who have the privilege of being crowd
ed to the number of thirty or forty in a
very limited space are mostly clerks charg-
ed with fraud. seeming swells who are
really adventures, forgers, embezzlers
and the like. There are few separate
cells, seventy-six for males and as many
for females, set apart for the top sawyers
in crime or those brought in under
judges order, but the rest of the days
"takings" are herded together, sometimes
to the number of 200 or more in one great
arched hall, with stone floors and wooden
benches, big, dark, dreary and ill-ven-
tilated chamber nearly always crammed
with dirty, ragged mass of wretched hui
manity. One or two narrow exercising
| yards give some relief, but in bad weather
the hall is always full and at night the
prisoners lie closely packed on mattresses
on the floor.
The prison system in Paris improves di-
rectly the depot is done with. An accused
| person must either be released within twen-
| ty-four hours or be sent to Mazas, the
trial prison, where all thus committed
await appearance in court. The improve
ment means that he is now lodged alone
| in a small, separate cell where his friends
and his advocate may have access to him
and he may prepare his defense. Only in
| certain cases he is kept Eau secret" in
absolute isolation-that is to say, seeing
| no one, speaking to no one; the hand of
| justice is thus heavy upon him, for fear he
should escape conviction by planning some
| subterfuge of manufacturing an alibi and
| false evidence to support It, Whether ''au
| secret" or not he is continually harassed
| by the Judge, who "instructS' or prepares
| the Indictment and whose business it is, by
repeated questionings, to elicit confessions
or admissions of guilt. This, to English
i ideas, is taking an unfair advantage of
! him, but in France the system is carried
| still further and it is the custom for the
chief of the detective police to visit accused
| persons in Mazas once a week and talk
matters over with them. I have assisted
at some of these Mondays in prison." as
M. Mace, an old chief, calls them in his
book on the subject. They appear quite
| friendly unofficial interviews; all sit COST
| ly together, the prisoner and the police,
cigarettes are produced, and the CONVEX
sation is at first quite general. But woe
to the prisoner who is not on his guard; a
simple hint word dropped casually, a
| change of face when some doubtful de-
tail in the affair is mentioned, will serve
to give strength to mere suspicion and per-
haps complete the case. At one time still
more indefensible practice obtained II
an accused person continued obstinately
dumb, he was given a cell companion, a
false friend, some other prisoner known
in slang talk as the mouton, or la musique
whose role is that of the spy to worm HIM
| self into the others confidence, obtain rev.
elations then betray him to the authorf-
ties. Occasionally a disguised detective
| has performed this dangerous and rather
| disgusting duty. Nowadays right-think-
| ing French judges are found who disap-
prove of the practice, and 1t is seldom IL
ever tried. The double cells used for the
| purpose still exist, but the association of
| two prisoners is generally reserved for
| cases where one of them shows suicidal
! or other mania.