Detroit evening times., 1945-07-01

Your punishment doesn't really begin until.you
are let out on ticket-ofleave" one said. while you
serving your inside sentence thinrs-afe not
entirely unbcarable. You have a cot clean bed
ding, clean clothes and clean cell if you want 10
keep them clean. and you can have such- things
mosquito netting il you pay for them. The food
sometimes is pretty bad but averages not far below
the rations of a French Colonial soldier which is
what they are supposed TO be"
AS for work and money, another SAYS this:
"A man has to make-six pairs of slippers
day for the administration. II he is clever he
slips the warden the equivalent of quarter a day
and then make 10 pairs them the shops
Tor about 70 cents pair, which is all profit be-
cause the materials come out OF the prison stock.
AT the end Of five years I became hbere and
found that had been much better Off chained to a
lathe. Free within the confines of the colony !
had TO beg, starYe or escape because anyone could
hire many Convicts from inside the prison,
including the guard for low as eight cents
day. l, who had to feed clothe and shelterSmyself
could not compete with that scale Of wages"
In the United States paroled convict wishing
TO return and serve the rest OF his may do
so with the greatest OF ease. He need only break
his parole and back he goes automa tically The
first beres thought of this simple scheme but the
prison authorities thought of answer the prison
ship. La Martiniere
This horror ship was so constructed and run that
prisoner preferred sharks TO being guest on it.
1 a MARTINIERE was abolished" in 1886 and of.
- fCrrd for safe but the roting hulk being worth
less for anything, remained at its moorings TO be
T..
This fiendshly ingenious Set-up the
result Of one of those impetuOuS reforms
gone wrong. The idea in founding the
penal settlements was a double one First,
- the ConVictS, after sowing part time, would
W be free 20 redeem themselves, free in every
way except geographically The men and
"a vvor1rrr frbrrrs wcTr expected TO marry and
raise large families of new FTCnchmen
The scheme did not seem visionary at
the time because England had shipped her
uckotof-lcaVe men TO Australia with
nobcr motive than TO relieve crowded Eng
LSh prisons. Yet the results had been
splendid. The eXiled prisoners, being merely
political offenders or victims of oppressive
debtor laws, became excellent citizens.
But the climate OF French Guiana was
different, Englshmcn and Frcnchmen are
different and also the infusion Of laNbreak-
ing blood was comparatively small trickle
in the main stream Australian immigra-
ton, whereas in the French experiment, il seems
to have been about 90 per cent
SaddcSt OF all the flat failure of the love
interest on which the whole plan depended. The
gentlemen hbercS showed almost no serious intcn-
tons toward the lady libcres. True, the women were
no better than they ought to be" but neither were
the men, 50 they should have been satisfied with
each other
Possibly this might have happened but for the
fact that neither could afford TO marry for
love. The male libere needed a bride with
dowry sufficient 10 buy a farm; the female a
husband who already had the price of one. There
fore the marrying was mostly with abOrigineS
who owned farm or shop and the end product
was a lot of halfbreedS The Government recog.
nizcd the failure of its plan by ccasing TO send fe
male offenders but the experiment went on
(The curious reaction of these public enemies
to the fall of their country and the cruelies OF
Admiral Robert will be related in next weeks in
stalment)