Beyond Papillon: The French Overseas Penal Colonies, 1854-1952

4. The Lords of Discipline: The French Penal Colony Service

T 4. The Lords of Discipline The French Penal Colony Service In her 1937 book Bagne, Parisian attorney Mireille Maroger found “the brutality , ignorance, and . . . dishonesty” of penal colony guards to be quite “obvious,” but what impressed her most was “their villainy, their malicious hatreds, and the dread they inspire.”1 French poet and novelist Francis Carco characterized these men similarly: “Tanned, bilious, quick tempered and sarcastic, they swagger their gold banded uniforms in the cafés and court their prostitutes. They are devoid of any sort of good traits of character. Some of them stink of alcohol and cheap perfume. I don’t envy anyone the misfortune of falling into the hands of these sinister individuals.”2 To many observers, such as adventure writer Hassoldt Davis, penal colony guards were not appreciably different in character from the prisoners themselves: “The question is moot as to whether the surveillants are brutalized by their association with inveterate thieves and murderers, or the other way around. Like husbands and wives, these two classes, supposedly contrary, have grown to resemble one another. . . . The making of pain was their trade and they are nourished by their product.”3 Such considerations were neither new nor limited to literary luminaries or criminal theorists. Indeed, with the publication of newspaper reports in Le petit national, Reveil social, Le citoyen, and Le temps, a heretofore blithe French reading public was allowed inside the bagne for the first time. What they discovered was “true history in all its details, true-life accounts of suffering” by recently repatriated Communards who recounted “frequent whippings and the regular use of thumb screws” in New Caledonia.4 One such article summarized prison life in the following manner: “If a guard The French Penal Colony Service  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.”5 With growing public outrage, and with strident demands for an outside investigation coming from these newspapers, a parliamentary commission was convened to look into the matter in January 1880.6 In large measure, the vivid recollections of numerous former Communards supported the charges of abuse that had been put forth in the press. For instance, Alexandre Bauche testified that it was a “well-known fact that most condamnés received blows from the whip” and that he knew of a particular warden who “used to menace us by pulling out his revolver and pretending to shoot us.”7 Gaston Da Costa maintained that thumbscrews were frequently used as a means of interrogation and torture in the penal colony and that he had seen many prisoners sent to the hospital after having been “mutilated by these devices.”8 Perhaps the most dramatic point in the hearings came when Alphonse Humbert exclaimed: “There is nothing exaggerated in what has been reported. I have seen the thumbscrews and I can show the damage that these instruments can do!” He then raised his mangled hands to the committee.9 Although corporal punishment was allowed under penal colony regulation , the use of thumbscrews by guards was strictly forbidden by regulation. Indeed, officials referred to these rules in testimony and internal memoranda . For instance, Louis Le Gros, a retired penal colony commandant, testified that during his service in New Caledonia “the use of thumbscrews was not permitted by authority of the penitentiary. Never did a condamné complain of having been the victim of this instrument.”10 In a letter to the Ministry, the director of the penitentiary administration in New Caledonia admitted that corporal punishment was utilized, but only in “those exceptional cases that were to be determined by the administration in consultation with the governor.” He concluded by saying that “that the whip is never used on the legs and rarely lasts more than one minute. It is repugnant that I have to respond to these accusations, since the state of punishment T The French Penal Colony Service  as mandated by the Ministry of the Marine has been followed with the utmost care.”11 Obviously, such statements cannot be taken at face value...