French prisons long lagged behind advanced practices abroad, not only in respect of their structural fitness and physical condition, but also in the measure in which the method of conducting them effected the morals of those who passed through them. When the question was at last presented, it was considered with the logical thoroughness and carried out with the administrative efficiency characteristic of the French government, when impressed with the necessity for action in any given line.
The question for the French prison authorities--as indeed it is the question of questions for the prison government of all nations--is now: “What can be and shall be done for the reform of the convict rather than for his mere repression and punishment?” The material aspects of the French prison system have attained almost to perfection. These, as well as the moral aspects of the subject, which that very physical perfection inevitably presents, it is the purpose of this volume to consider.
MADAME ROLAND INCARCERATED IN SAINTE PÉLAGIE _Frontispiece_
The Old and the New Régime divided by the Revolution--Changes in prison system introduced by the Legislative Assembly--Napoleon’s State prisons which replaced the Bastile--Common gaols which still survived--Bicêtre--St. Pélagie--Saint Lazare--The Conciergerie and La Force--Account of La Force from contemporary records--Béranger in La Force--Chenu--His experiences--St. Pélagie described--Wallerand, the infamous governor--Origin of Bicêtre--As John Howard saw it--Inconceivably bad under the Empire--Vidocq’s account of Bicêtre--The Conciergerie--Marie Antoinette--Political prisoners in the Conciergerie--Marshal Ney and Le Comte de La Valette--His wonderful escape.
The Revolution may be considered the dividing line between the ancient and modern régime in France. Many of the horrors of the first period, however, survived far into the second, and although with a more settled government the worst features of the Terror disappeared, prisons remained in character much the same. The Convention no doubt desired to avoid the evils of arbitrary imprisonment, so long the custom with the long line of despotic rulers of France, and would have established, had it survived, a regular punitive system by which prisons should serve for more than mere detention and deprivation of liberty, intending them for the infliction of penalties graduated to the nature and extent of offences. It was decreed in 1791 that the needs of justice should be supported by classifying all prisons in four categories, namely: Houses of detention for accused but untried prisoners; penal prisons for convicted prisoners; correctional prisons for less heinous offenders; houses of correction for juveniles of fewer than sixteen years, and for the detention of ill-conducted minors at the request of their relatives and friends.