The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-02-08
FRENuh CRIMINALS.
PUNISHMENT FOR LIFE Melted OUT
TO HABlTUAL OFFENDERS.

TO HABlTUAl OFFENDERS.
They Are Sent Either to French
Guiana or the Isle of Pines, the
Latter a Coral Fringed Paradise In
the South Pacific.
The other day I read an account Of a
young fellow of 81 who was convicted fol
the twenty-eighth time as a drunk and
disorderly. The poor wretch openly boast
ed in court that he intended to break the
record previously held, believe, by the
late unlamented Jane Cakebread, who
was convicted more than 400 times Of the
same offense.
In the many Hrisons l have myself WIS.,
tied l have found exactly the same de-
plorable state of affairs with regard to
theft, burglary and kindred crimes. In
one English prison, for instance, l saw q
man about 40 who had spent nearly &c
years of his life In reformatories and
prisons. His family was most respecta.
Bile, and he had had every assistance,
but 1t was no use. He was crook, and
he simply couldn't go straight.
To punish these miserable people with
terms Of Imprisonment and then let then
loose to commit new crimes-practically
their orly possible chance of getting
bread and butter-is about as sensible as
It would be to discharge scarlet fever
patient from a hospital during the seal
ing period of the disease. Yet year after
year we go laundering along, knowing
perfectly well that our reformatories and
prisons are simply academies Of crime,
centers Of infection from which the moral
disease is increasingly spread.
Now, this is one of those things which
they manage a great deal better In
France, and how they do it is what pro-
pose to tell here. A pickpocket, profes.
sional beggar or habitual drunk and
disorderly" is brought up for his or her
fourth or fifth conviction. 1t is proved be-
yond doubt that he or she Is incapable of
performing the duties and therefore Of
exercising the rights of a free citizen.
Sentence Is passed for the last time, a
term of Imprisonment is imposed which
Is really a preparation for the new life
which the hopeless case, the piece Of hu.
man refuse, Is to lead:
"At the expiration of your sentence you
will be placed In relegation," says the
judge.
That means Punishment for life. The
criminal never sees his old haunts, never
mixes with his old companions again
save In exile. 1t will no longer be pos
sible for him to commit crime or to con-
taminate the society which has now fin
ished with him. Moreover, he has got
to work, and If he won't do that he will
fnd his food cut down and himself In
prison, which is made just about as un-
comfortable for him as 1t can be.
France possesses two of these dump
ing grounds for human refuse, as they
may justly be called. One is French
Guiana, which Is about one of the best
places In the world to get out of and
stop away from. The other is the isle
of Pines, which Is a coral fringed para
disc far away in the south Pacific, one
of the most beautiful spots ever trodden
by human feet or dar..ened by the pres
ence of human crime.
1t Ia on the isle o: Pines that the first
process Of compulsory reformation be-
gins. The hard cases are lodged in bar
racks, fed and targht, possibly for the
first time In their lives, how to do use
full work.
Their working day Is about seven hours
and a half, and from what / have seen
of them they are well treated, well fed
and by no means overworked. OF course
very few of them know anything about
trade. Their only idea in life has been
to loaf from the cradle to the grave.
Those who can never be made into work
men or workwomen are put on the fields,
farms and coffee plantations. Others are
taught trades, and gradually the aimless,
shiftless loafer of the slums becomes a
more or less skillful carpenter. black
smith, wheelwright or stonemason.
The women work In the fields just as
the free peasant women do in France or
taught straw plating, hatmaking and
that kind of work.
Those who conduct themselves well and
really try to work can earn a few SOUS a
day. Half their earnings Is saved for
them by the government against the day
of partial release The other half they
are allowed to spend on little luxuries
which of course always take the form of
something to eat or drink or smoke.
All this time they are under what is
practically prison discipline, and it is
wonderful how quickly this shapes the
bully and BLACKBOARD of the streets into
the decent industrious workman. who
knows that good work and good behavior
will win him comparative freedom and
the right to live a really pleasanter life
than he could ever have led as a criminal
in France.
At length. for those who have been
proved capable of certain amount Of re-
generation, arrives the day when they
pass from collective" to "individuaP'
RELOCATION. In other words, they are per
mitted to leave the barracks and the la
Dor gang and seek such employment as
they can get In the colony.
II they have learned a trade. they may
practice it. There are. indeed, cases
where hopeless case in France has be-
come an employer Of labor in the colony.
Others go into domestic service, and some
get minor posts under the administration.
i met one mild eyed old gentleman in the
Isle of Pines who was employed as secre-
tary to the government. He kept the &C.
counts of the island in order and amused
his leisure by the compilation of the his
tory Of the penal colony.
He was q doctor of letters of the uni
versity In Paris, man of great intellec-
tual power, but absolutely no moral con-
troll. In France he had lost office after
Office. taken to drink, then to begging and
petty thieving. Under our system he
would have been in and out of prison.
lodging the police meanwhile till he
starved to death under q railway arch or
let himself drop out of human sight in the
Thames. Here he was living a quiet,
healthy, useful life in an exquisite eli
mate without care on his mind. save
perhaps the memory of what he had
been.
As q rule when reformed hard cases
have reached a position like this there Is
no reason why they should ever want for
the necessaries or even the comforts Of
life again. There are. in fact. only two
things they may not do. They must not
leave the colony. and they must not mar
~. In former times marriage was per-
mitted. and those who were married be-
fore Punishment were allowed to come to-
gether again in the colony. but now the
government has most wisely put stop
to this, wherefore the French criminal
does not increase and multiply as tbs
English one does.-Pearson's Weekly.