Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/783

Rh PRISON DISCIPLINE 759 which deal exclusively with juvenile crime. These are at St Hubert in Luxemburg, and at Nanuir. The first, dating from 1840, is an agricultural colony which receives all youths up to the age of fourteen ; the labour is exclusively in the fields. Young criminals belonging to the towns are sent to Namur, where the work is mechanical but more sedentary. A good education both moral and practical is received at these reformatories, which are more like schools than prisons. There are also philanthropic schools for vag rants and non-criminal children. At present no societies labour to assist prisoners on release. A complete organization once existed for the purpose, but it was wholly official, and those whom it was supposed to benefit suspected and kept aloof from it. It may be added that, although there is no power in the prisoners own hands of working out remission by steady industry and good conduct, sen tences may be abbreviated on these grounds on the recommendation of the prison authorities. All sentences, too, have been shortened since the general introduction of cellular imprisonment ; as the treatment was more severe, justice demanded a curtailment of the penalties. Capital punishment, although not definitively abolished, is never inflicted, and all sentenced to death pass into prison for life. But after ten years they too are transferred to Ghent for the remainder of their days. Brazil. The present emperor of Brazil has long taken an active interest in prison reform. He has encouraged the prison adminis tration of his country to introduce a scheme which is in many respects the same as that in force in England. Prisoners, after sentence, are subjected to a period of close cellular confinement enduring eight months ; they then pass to another prison, where cellular separation is still enforced, but the daily labour is in associa tion and in silence. This is styled the reformatory stage ; after that comes the third stage, which is reached by marks gained through industry and good conduct. In this last stage, called the testing stage, prisoners work together ; they may converse, may wear their own clothes, and are under the care and supervision of the most trustworthy of their fellows. They sleep in large dormitories, not in cells, are allowed to cultivate a piece of garden ground on their own account, and a large portion of their earnings is placed to their credit and handed over to them on release. Denmark. The prison system in force in Denmark dates from 1840, previous to which time the arrangements were extremely unsatisfactory. In the early part of the century Danish prisons were in as deplorable condition as any in Europe ; after enduring indescribable horrors, the worst malefactors passed on to hard labour in the fortresses or in the fleets. But a commission was appointed in 1840 to report, and recommended the adoption of the cellular system for all prisoners awaiting trial, and under short- term sentences, those condemned to long imprisonments to bo put to hard labour in association. The necessary prisons were con structed at a cost, within a quarter of a century, of two millions of pounds. There are a large number of small detention prisons, and four principal prisons for the convicted ; one cellular for males at Vridsloesville, and two associated at Horsens and Viborg, one for females combined cellular and associated at Christianshavn. About 75 per cent, of the whole are sentenced to separative con finement in cells ; its infliction is limited to first offenders, youths, or those sentenced to six months and upwards to three years and a half; the associated or aggregate system applies to the reconvicted, and for terms from two years to life. There is no distinctly penal 1 ibour in the prisons ; the industrial prevails, and is in the hands of contractors. Prisoners in cells are constantly visited ; religious and secular instruction is imparted ; the dietaries are carefully cal culated, and the regime generally intelligent and humane. A number of aid societies have been established at the seat of the large prisons, which assist prisoners on release who have been dili gent and well conducted in confinement. Work is found, tools and subsistence given, as in England. It is interesting to note that the first aid society was formed at Copenhagen in 1841 through the exertions of Mrs Fry. Besides the regular prisons, there are three reformatories for juveniles modelled on the French school at Mettray ; they have been founded by private benevolence, but re ceive aid from the state. Agriculture is the principal employment of the inmates. France. Prisons and their management have not attracted close or continuous attention in France. Dynastic changes, wars, revolu tions, and intestinal troubles may be pleaded as the excuse. A system based on the principle of individual separation as practised in the United States was on the point of being adopted in France when the legislation to secure it was interrupted by the revolution of 1848. Under the empire the question was generally subordinated to more pressing political needs. Cellular imprisonment was, how ever, adopted partially, but only to a limited extent, for persons await ing trial. Central prisons in which the prisoners lived and worked in association had been established early in the century, and their use was extended. They received all sentenced to the shorter terms. The long-term convicts went to the bagnes, the great convict prisons at the arsenals of Rochefort, Brest, and Toulon ; and in 1851, a few years after it had been abandoned by England, transportation to penal colonies was adopted by France. In 1869 Napoleon III. appointed a commission to inquire and report upon the whole question, but its labours were rudely interrupted by the Franco- German War. Three years later a fresh commission, appointed by the national assembly to discuss parliamentary reform, made a most exhaustive report in 1874. It unhesitatingly recommended cellular confinement, and the principle became law the following year. This system of prison discipline then became applicable to all persons awaiting trial, to those sentenced to any term up to a year and a day, and to those for longer terms provided they asked to be kept separate and apart. It was calculated by the commission first mentioned that there were nearly eight thousand cells already in existence and available, but an additional twenty-one thousand would have to be constructed at an outlay of sixty-three millions of francs in order to meet the demands of this new system. A model cell was designed and plans for model prisons, but the expense the change would entail appears to have deterred French authorities, both the central executive and the conseits gtneraux, from promptly making it. There are not more than ten or a dozen cellular prisons in France, and two of them are in Paris Mazas (for trial prisoners) and La Sante, but the latter is not entirely cellular. The construction of others has been contemplated, but in few cases proceeded with, and many years will probably elapse before any uniformity in penal treatment is established in France. Prison administration is complex in France, and there are many kinds of prisons, a few of them being under the authority of the minister of the interior : (1) the maison d arret, temporary places of durance in every arrondissement for persons charged with offences, and those sentenced to more than a year s imprisonment who are awaiting transfer to a maison centrale ; (2) the maison de justice, often part and parcel of the former, but only existing in the assize court towns for the safe custody of those tried or condemned at the assizes ; (3) the depot situated on the island of Re, for all sentenced to travaux forces awaiting deportation to New Caledonia (Arabs so sentenced wait at Avignon their removal to French Guiana) ; (4) departmental prisons or houses of correction, for summary con victions, or those sentenced to less than a year, or, if provided with sufficient cells, those amenable to separate confinement ; (5) the maisons centrales, or central prisons, for all sentenced to more than a year, or for men and women above sixty sentenced to travaux forces; (6) maisons dc force, for women sentenced to travaux forces, or both sexes condemned to seclusion ; (7) prisons for those sen tenced to simple detention ; (8) penal settlements in Corsica, more particularly at Chiavari, C asabianca, and Castellucio, the regime of which is the same as in the maisons centrales ; (9) reformatory establishments for juvenile offenders ; and (10) depots de stircte, for prisoners who are travelling, at places where there are no other prisons. The total number of prisons of all classes in France, exclusive of the last, exceeds 500, and the prison population averages 50,000 daily. Besides the foregoing there are a certain number of military prisons under the war minister seated at the great garrison towns, or in Algeria ; and at all the seaports there are maritime prisons for soldiers or sailors who have broken laws civil or military. The latter are under the minister of marine, who also has special charge of the penal settlements at a distance from France, including French Guiana and New Caledonia, where there are several prisons and hulks adapted for the confinement of convicts. The dis ciplinary treatment of all prisoners in separate confinement is much the same in France as elsewhere ; the isolation while it lasts is com plete and is broken only by the frequent visits of officials. The exer cise is solitary, and at chapel the same rule obtains by each prisoner occupying a separate box, or by having service in the centre of the prison, to which all the cell doors, slightly opened, converge. It may be stated here that religious tolerance prevails everywhere ; and prisoners not Roman Catholics may receive the ministration of clergymen of their own creed. Female prisons are mostly managed by nuns or members of the female religious orders. There is one at Doullens especially kept for Protestant female prisoners, and managed by a Protestant sisterhood. The evils of association in the congregate prisons are diminished by classification, so far as it goes. But prisoners are at least kept in categories: trial prisoners are together ; those for a year are kept apart from the summary convictions, and convicts en route for the island of Re from all the rest. Males and females occupy different prisons. As almost all prisons have at least a few separate cells, these are utilized either for the recidivists and those of worst character, or for any well-disposed prisoners who exhibit a real desire to amend. The diet, although coarse, is liberal. It may be supplemented by purchase made from the canteen, at which both wine and tobacco may be obtained by all who can pay for it. Each person may thus spend a certain proportion of his earnings or pecule, the rest being reserved for his discharge. What remains of the product of the prisoner s labour is handed over to the contractor, who also receives a grant per prisoner from the state. Labour is only obligatory upon those so sentenced ; it is purely industrial ; penal labour, such as treadmill or crank, does not exist in French prisons. In the smaller it is not easy to find occupation for the inmates, but in the