Editions L'Échappée are publishing this fall the comic strip / graphicnovel (without words!) by Roland Cros, The Incorrigible, Itinerary of anOrdinary Convict. In 90 magnificent black and white engravings, RolandCros recreates an atmosphere, that of the penal colony, of bruisedbodies, of the darkness and ordinary violence of bourgeois justice andthe prison institution. ---- A hundred years ago, it was a reporter,Albert Londres, who also discovered the penal colony. His report,published in serials in the Petit Parisien in August 1923, brought tothe attention of the general public the life of convicts and theirunworthy conditions. This will be the beginning of the end of thistotalitarian and colonial institution. Crossed perspectives 100 yearsapart on the penal colony and its systemic violence.- Roland Cros, The incorrigible, Itinerary of an ordinary convict,editions L'Echappée, 2023, 192 pages, 22 euros.Guyana 1923, Albert Londres fines the penal colonyIn August 1923 Albert Londres, considered the pioneer of greatreporting, published the first episode of his investigation into thepenal colony of Guyana. The meticulous restitution of individualstories, at a human level, restores their humanity to the convicts whosesentence to the penal colony is often worth a life sentence. His reportwill be the first stone which will lead to the law establishing theclosure of the penal colony passed in 1938.If the first deportations of opponents, royalists and refractorypriests, to Guyana took place in 1795 under the French Revolution, itwas through a series of laws taken between 1852 and 1854 that the SecondEmpire established the colonial prisons in Guyana and New Caledonia. TheSecond Empire thought it had found the answer to various issues:security, health, economics and morals. Napoleon III intended todefinitively exclude from the social body its most "contaminated" and"contaminating" elements through deportation and forced labor.Since the 1830s, crime has become a social problem: lawyers, economistsand doctors publish studies and memoirs on the issue. Cities becomefeared places where an impoverished population crowds together,frightening the bourgeoisie. According to Louis Chevalier, at thebeginning of the Second Empire the working classes became synonymouswith dangerous classes with which crime was associated, which: "ceasedto stick closely to the dangerous classes to extend, while changing itsmeaning, to large masses of the population , to the majority of theworking classes"[1]. Deportation, as the exclusion of contaminated partsof the social body, is a form of prophylaxis that is both social andhealth. The distancing of the social body from the "dangerous classes"also responds to a demand from the populations living near the portpenal colonies of Brest, Rochefort, Toulon, etc. (which replaced thegalleys from the 17th century), who fear both for their safety and health.Punishing the incorrigibleThe transition from port to colonial penal colony is also a consequenceof the abolition of slavery and the changing perception of the economicimportance of colonies. The desire to create settlements implies theprovision of labor, which can be forced to work at will, to bring outnon-existent infrastructure in a hostile environment. Finally - and thisis reminiscent of current debates on the forced labor of peoplereceiving RSA - the moral dimension of "put to work" as a form ofredemption cannot be ruled out.At the very end of the 19th century, the Third Republic, whileimplementing major social laws and strengthening the basis of bourgeoisdemocracy, created a new penalty: relegation. If deportation concernedpolitical prisoners and forced labor concerned criminals, relegationconcerned repeat offenders, those who were then considered"incorrigible". According to the law of May 27, 1885, "relegation willconsist of the perpetual internment on the territory of French coloniesor possessions of the convicts whose purpose this law is to remove fromFrance"[2]. "From 1887 to 1953, 22,163 relegates suffered theirpunishment of relegation within the colonial penal colonies of Guyanaand New Caledonia"[3]because of their "dangerousness".Relegation and doubling, life sentencesRelegation is imposed on judges by virtue of its automatic nature, asfollows: "If an individual appears before a judge and aligns with hiscriminal record one of the sentence combinations set out above, themagistrate, in the event of a new conviction, must automaticallypronounce the penalty of relegation. Its power to assess the facts isset aside in favor of a "tariff penalty" which sanctions a state.»[4].Another measure is also introduced, the "doubling" penalty. Thosesentenced to forced labor - 5 years or more, that is to say those whoserved this sentence in the colonial penal colony - had, after theirrelease, to remain an equivalent number of years in Guyana, except inCayenne which was prohibited to them. Albert Londres in his report onthe penal colony of Guyana highlights and denounces this practiceunknown to the general public: "Dubbing? When a man is sentenced to fiveto seven years of forced labor, once this sentence is completed, he mustremain the same number of years in Guyana. If he is sentenced to morethan seven years, it is perpetual residence. How many jurors knowthis?»[5]. Albert Londres is not a revolutionary, he does not seek toput an end to the penal colony, only to "humanize" it. However, hisseries of reports constitutes the beginning of the end of this prisoninstitution. From the publication of Albert Londres' report, articles and speechesquestioning the functioning, or the very existence of the Guyana penalcolony[6], will multiply. Associations such as the Human Rights Leagueand the Salvation Army will carry out campaigns to denounce the livingconditions of convicts and those freed serving their double sentence. Inthe 1930s the end of the penal colony was on the agenda. GastonMonnerville, radical deputy from Guyana, and himself a Guyanese, will beone of the most committed personalities. It was he who, asUnder-Secretary of State for the Colonies of the Popular Front, signedthe decree closing the penal colony in 1938. Official history statesthat the last convicts left Guyana fifteen years later, in 1953...except for the Indochinese who were not released until 1963!David (UCL Savoies)BAGNES IN THE SERVICE OF COLONIALISMThe prisons of Guyana and New Caledonia are fully integrated into thecolonial history of France in the 19th and 20th centuries, constituting,"on two counts, a moment in the history of French colonial policy"[7].The two prisons were designed to punish "rebellious people" but also tohelp populate distant colonies. following the example of the EnglishMonarchy which deported thousands of convicts to Australia.The particularly harsh living conditions in Guyana and the highmortality rates meant that New Caledonia was often favored for sendingconvicts in the 1860s/1870s. It was also to New Caledonia that exiledCommunards were sent. In addition to the colonial administration whichmonopolized Kanak lands - very quickly associating itself withcapitalist companies - convicts were used to suppress revolts: that ofthe Kabyles in 1871, or the Kanaks in 1878. Louise Michel noted bitterlythat his communard comrades were little concerned about the livingconditions and the just demands of the Kanak population. From 1880, the Third Republic chose to favor a settlement colony in NewCaledonia and reactivated the penal colony of Guyana. It was to Guyanathat the Algerians were deported at the end of the 19th century, thenthe Indochinese in the 1920s, the colonial penal colony serving as aplace of repression and punishment for the activities of anti-colonialmovements. If the last "metropolitans" were repatriated in 1953, itwould take 10 years for this to become effective for the prisoners ofIndochina, colonial justice always being exceptional justice.To validate[1]Louis Chevalier, Working classes and dangerous classes in Parisduring the first half of the 19th century, Plon, 1958[2]Law of May 27, 1885[3]Jean-Lucien Sanchez, "From colonists to convicts: the relegation ofrepeat offenders in French Guiana", Cahiers d'études pénitentiaires etcriminologique, n°39, October 2013.[4]Idem.[5]Albert Londres, Au Bagne, Éditions du Rocher, 2012[6]The penal colony of Guyana is in fact a penitentiary administrativeentity made up of a set of camps and penitentiaries, including floatingones, spread across the territory of Guyana.[7]Danielle Donet-Vincent, "The prisons of the Indochinese in Guyana(1931-1963)", Outre-Mers. Revue d'histoire, 2001, n° 330-331, pp. 209-221.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?1923-2023-Bagne-de-Guyane-deux-regards-a-100-ans-d-ecart_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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