El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-11-20
FRENCH PRISONERS.
How Those Accused of Crime Are Treat
ed by the Partisan Police

How Those Accused of Crime Are Treat
ed by the Partisan Police
The prison premises at the depot OF
the prefecture are very Insufficient,
and it is blot on Paris tina. such a
place continues to exist without i'm
provement. Any one almost might be
obliged to pass through the cd al of q
night at the depot. Mistakes have
been made before now by the French
police: persons of undoubted respects
bility and perfect innocence, foreign
visitors in particular, have been arrest
ed and when once in custody they can
not go free until all the formalities
have been fulfilled. In France an &C
cused person is deemed guilty
until he proves Himself inno-
cent, and as the principle may press
very hard at mes, bette" arrange
ments should be made at the perfec-
ture. There is one little room set
apart for the batter dressed of the
captures brought by tine black Maria;
this is called the SAL es des habits
nos" the room for decent coats, to
which are set the ou,wardly respecta-
bic those favored folks who have the
privilege of being GROVE ed to the num-
Der of thirty or fourty in a very limited
space are mostly clerks charged with
fraud, seeming swells who are really
doNC III ., Gill OOLLlCio oho
the like. There are few separate
cells, venty-six for males and as
many for females, set apart for tho top
t broSsht in in o Under a Judges dyes
order, but the rest of the days
''takings" are he'ded togeshar, some
times to the numb Der OF 200 or more, in
one great arched hall, with ston-
floors ADD WOO len benches, a big,
n 10 Tod
chamber, nearly always crammed
with dirty, ragged mass OF wretched
humanity. One or. two narrow exer-
csing yards give some relief, but in
bad weather the hall is always full and
at right the prisoners lie closely pack
ed on mastresses on the floor.
The prison system in Paris improves
directly the depot is done with. An
accused person must either be released
Mazas, the ''trial' prison, where all
those committed await appearance in
court. The Improvement means that
he is now lodged alone in small,
separate cell, where his friends and
bis advocates 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
manu- OI Justice IS LuuS noaVy
upon him for fear he should
escape conviction by planning some
subteruge or manufacturing sn alibi
and false evidence 10 support it..
Whether Eau secret or not. he CON-
tinually hsrassed by the judge, who
''instrucis" or prepares the Indictment,
and whose bust ess it is, by repeated
questionines, to elicit confessions or
admissions of guilt. This to English
ideas. is taking an upfair advantage of
him, but in France the system is car
ried st.ll further, AMI it is the custom
for the chief of the detective police to
visit accused e-sons in MaZas once a
week am talk matters over with tb EN- {.
| have ass te1 at some of these Moo
days in prison. as M. Mac, an old
chief calls them in his book on the sub
ject They appear quite friendly, I'M
official int, views. ALI sit clio ely TO-
getner the prisoner and the police, Gig
arettes are produced, and the CONVEX
satiOn is at first quite general. But woe
20 the prisoner who is not on his guard,
simple hint word dropped casually
a charge of face when some doubt
full detail in the affair is mentioned,
will serve to give strength to mere
suspicion, and perhaps complete the
case. At ore time still m;re in
defensible practice obtsined: if an &C
cuse1 person continued obstinately
dumb he was given a cell companion,
false friend, some other prisoner
known in slang talk as the mouton, or
la mu-ique, whose role is that of the
spy to worm himself into the others
cOnfide nee, obtain revelat ons, then be-
tray him to the authorities. Oc-
casionally disguised detective has
performed this dangerous and rather
disgusting duty. Nowadays, right
thinking French judges are found who
disapprove of the practice, and it is
seldom if ever tried. The double cells
used for the purpose still exist, hut the
association of two prisoners is gen.
orally reserved for cases where one of
them shows suicidal or oJner mania.