Considérations sommaires sur les prisons (French Edition)

The recalcitrant guard would be returned to the army or navy, where he would finish his tour of duty The annual remuneration for the newly created position of warden principal was set at 3,, francs, more than triple what the most experienced warden earned prior to The base pay for warden chiefs ranged from 3,, francs, and the two highest classes of wardens earned between 2,, francs per year.

The salary for those first entering the corps nearly quadrupled, from francs to 1, francs annually This compared favorably to salaries in the metropole, where earnings for an ordinary guard in a metropolitan prison were typically around francs per year, and a gardien-chef 1, to 1, francs An attempt to systematize the corps in order to improve its operation and function, the aforementioned measures were also designed to act on another level; the emphasis on discipline and decorum would imbue the guard with such virtues.

The reconfigured guard would now be an obedient and reliable instrument of order in the bagnes. The military corps of surveillants is now generally well recruited. The corps is well composed. There are few attempts at escape, and those are rarely if ever successful.

One such article summarized life in the bagne in the following manner:. If a guard finds your work unsatisfactory, you receive blows from the whip. If you march too quickly or too slowly, you receive blows from the whip. If you reply or attempt to deny any observation, you receive blows from the whip. For taking a piece of fruit along your daily route to work you receive blows from the whip.

For no apparent reason, other than the enjoyment of the guards, you receive blows from the whip What remains unexamined, however, is how the aftermath of the Communard scandal shaped the penal colony guard until the closure of the bagnes at the conclusion of the Second World War. Instead, they were handed down by a disciplinary commission composed of the commandant of the camp and two functionaries in the employ of the penitentiary administration and designated by the director of the penitentiary administration. Penal administrators also chafed at the requirement that guards charged with abuse or using their firearms against prisoners be tried before a council of war a tribunal comprised of various individuals from the Ministry and local colonial officials.

In a book entitled La colonisation et le bagne, one former colonial official, using a pseudonym, asked: What do we tell them? These are the men who are obliged to plead extenuating circumstances before tribunals when they are forced to defend themselves 50! From his vantage point in Paris, attorney A. Indeed, there was a growing realization that life was difficult in the penal colonies, and that in order to foster a better demeanor and improve rapport with prisoners, working and living conditions for the guards had to be ameliorated.

It was in this vein that an investigatory commission convened by the governor of New Caledonia to examine the corps of wardens in the wake of the Communard scandal concluded that although some guards performed their jobs well and ethically, others failed out of weakness or exhaustion. Thus, what do we see daily?

First, the perquisites established in the decree of did not suffice to meet the exigencies of life in the penal colonies. Local officials were inundated with written pleas from guards desperate to make ends meet. In one case, a warden second class wrote: On my salary my means are very restricted, and now without it and with the great costs of hospitalization, my family is in a state of penury.

Poignant evidence of his plight can be found in the list he attached to his letter, which detailed the number of visits he and members of his family made to the hospital to receive treatment for malaria. Entered January 2 left January 6. Entered January 2 left January 4. Entered January 1 left January 6.

Considérations sommaires sur les prisons, les bagnes et la peine de…

Entered January 23 left January Entered March 7 left March Entered March 16 left April 2. Entered March 16 left April 3. Entered March 24 left April 7. Entered April 9 left April Such schools were separate from those provided by the state in that they were free and available only to those had previously served in the military.

For those guards who had not, however, tuition for room and board was charged.

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As such fees were typically beyond his means, the guard had to petition the administration for a waiver or reduction to gain admittance for his child. Aside from containing basic information rank, location of posting, length of service, etc. Not coincidentally it was these same individuals who had the greatest pecuniary interest in having the child removed from the household and placed in the financial hands of the military.

In this context we see Surveillant Third Class Rolland submit a request for his seven-year old son Adrien. Given this determination, and with his record of good service, Adrien was admitted. Those who were married, however, were required to live outside the prison with their families.

These individuals were forced to maintain a separate household without salary compensation. Recognizing this, authorities attempted to rehabilitate the guard in the same manner as the convict. In the Ministry decreed that all married wardens were to be provided lodging that is, a private home adjacent to land suitable for a garden. In addition, each guard with three or more children was entitled to a supplementary ration, excluding wine and tafia. Finally, the decree established free medical care for the guard and his family. Five years later, for instance, the director of the penal administration in Guyana observed that newly arrived guards could find no acceptable housing for their families; the administration had done too little to install or locate affordable living accommodations.

Indeed, drinking seemed to be the besetting sin of the warden and the means by which he staved off the isolation and boredom of life in the penal colonies. Disciplinary reports are testament to the pervasive and pernicious hold that alcohol had upon not only the life of the warden, but upon the daily operation of the penal colony itself. Indeed, after a period of nearly fifteen hours in the hospital the guard was still inebriated.

Indeed, Octeau had served days in jail since April , and spent 24 days consigned to his room for five other occasions of drunkenness. In an examination of hundreds of individual dossiers one uncovers many incidents not unlike that involving the Warden Second Class Reydellet and Warden Third Class Rully, who, after an extended and very public drinking binge on the Isle des Pins in , passed out. For their actions, both men were demoted to third class A thirty-eight year old single man from Lyon, Joseph Marius Reydellet had an unremarkable stint in the Navy as an NCO before heading to Guyana where he served for over ten years prior to his demotion in Reydellet finished his four-year term of service as a third class warden and returned to France in Nearly a year after his demotion, however, Rully was found dead of natural causes on June 21, , although it was reported that he had been extremely drunk the preceding evening Instead, the camp commandant immediately placed both guards in the prison on the Isle of Nou.

Both men had their commissions revoked and were returned to France. In this regard, remarks such as those offered by General Borgnis-Desbordes in his investigation of the New Caledonian penal colony were typical: Indeed, a quarter of all the wardens third class in Guyana, none were advanced during a period of nearly five years between , and more than half of the twenty-seven men promoted to second class had languished in the third-class rank for five or six years Warden 3rd class-1, In many minds, the penal colony guard ranked no higher than a common soldier in terms of social status.

This situation is to the disadvantage of the service The governor of Guyana also observed that recruitment was difficult and good applicants rare. An inspection report acknowledged that the corps in New Caledonia was insufficient in all aspects. In that year, the number of guards was and dropping, while the number of convicts was 3, and rising In one of many reports, an inspector noted that: And for smoking what?

There was some discussion in the early s among some officials about the possibility of some sort of extended cours in which guards would be taught on general rules of comportment and elemental penal and juridical codes pertaining to transportation and the rights of prisoners. However, no definitive action was ever taken in this regard, and the training of guards remained the province of individual camp commandants, which meant, for all practical purposes, that it was non-existent The increasing demands placed upon the corps and the changing nature of thepenal colonies facilitated such behavior.

The Lords of Discipline. The Penal Colony Guards of New Caledonia and Guyana

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