DEVIL'S ISLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1932, Page 8

DEVIL'S ISLE

MODEL (?) PENAL COLONY. ■ Devil’s Isle and the French penal System iffi Frdti'cti 1 Guiana have . recently been jfi'ehtJibnedl in the Privy Council itf cdhsoquence of the successful appeal from a decision of the Supreme Court of the British island of Trinid'ad' against the extradition of- a nunibter of convicts who escaped from French 1 Guiana in a boat (writes a correspondent in the “Times.” The appeal Was financed by the Howard ‘League for Penal Reform, of which one of the new vice-presidents is' a magistrate in Trinidad. Since then the Salvation Army has decided tfo send out a' mission to labour among the ticket-of-leave men in the colony. The average citizen has- been taught by, sensational stories' and filmh to 1 think of Devil’s Isle as- the -beginning and end of the French convict colony, but the truth is that to.'day there are only six prisoners living on the island. There are about 4,000 convicts in the penitentiaries on less-known islands, or engaged in hard labour in the lumber camps oh the mainland. Devil’s Isle isspecially reserved for political- offenders. They are sent there because it was decreed a fortified area when a; land of exile was needed for Captain • Dreyfus. When I visited this’ island recently the convicts were having a fairly easy time. They live in cabins; have their own books and clothing, ,and keep a 1 small pig farm as a hobby. Though the island is only six degrees from the equator,, it is kept delightfully cool and healthy by fresh breezes from the Atlantic. Tlie prisoners receive the same rations as a French colonial soldier. Thiis in‘cfades one quarter of a bottle of wine a day. If their conduct is satisfactory they are allowed, after a few years, to seek employment in Cayenne, the mainland capital of the colony, ’where the' Governor resides in a cen-tury-old Jesuit monastery, now the Palais. The colony has representative government with the right to elect a Deputy to the Paris Legislature.

The life of a political prisoner on Devil’s Isle is iri marked contrast with the rest of the convicts. Ordinary convicts do not go to Devil’s Isle at all, but are sent r to a modern base deipot at St. Lautent, about fifteen miles' down the little-known Maroni River in a cleared area amid the tall trees of a tropical forest. One side of the river is French Guiana, the other side is DUtch Gtiiana- Convicts who wish to escape have only to cross' the river to be in foreign territory- At St. Laurent the French Government has established what has been termed a “convict’s riviera;” an illusion which is heightened for the casual visitor when he sbes the convicts walkirigabb'dt, of jteffofniing tlieir tasks, practically unescorted, dressed in ,red-striped pyjamas and wearing broad-brimmed beach hats of local •straw. They are accommodated at night in long dormitories, where the more enterprising of them run small coffee stalls or lending libraries, running accounts with their comrades which are settled whenever they have any money. The prison authorities' maintain a sort of convicts’ bank, to which is credited whatever a man earns by his work, so that when he comes out he may have a substantial sum of money at his disposal, less whatever he may have drawn fbt the sniall necessities of prison life, j Such an existence must seeifr farifetched to those who have read' only the highly coloured romances of life in French Guiana, but the state of affairs is only logical when it is recalled that the whole object of the system' is not so much to punish the cbn'victs aS to settle the colony* The original plan was to send out ihbn antf women convicts, so that they might marry and 1 establish homes when allowed out of gaol on ticket-of-leave. Unfortunately, the theory did not work in practice, largely in consequence of the advanced age of the convicts when released. Few children result from these unions.

NEW METHODS. France has sent out, of recebt years, some of her cleverest sons to control affairs y in the colony. Governor Siadoux began the policy of administrative r'eS&Yth, anW Colonel Prevel, of the French War Office, was specially selected to take charge of the penitentiary system, which noW runs on semi-military linbsl The tendency is to grade the convicts as a, regiment of pioneers, with battalions stationed wherever development work is needed. But it is a' military organisation without the enTorCetf discipline. No convict is obliged to salute or stand to attention; he is a civilian, and is treated as such.

When' M. Siadoux retired- last year the Fferi’ch Government Sent out a new Governor, M. Bogue, an experienced administrator from tile French Pacific Islands, and' later a new director for the penitentiary depot, a ; serving ihajb'f in 1 the ColohiaT Army Service Corps, to' take the place of Coforiel Prevei, who is now due to reTire- The object Was to' see- whether ■a still more benevolent rule with ? greater medical attention, might not ‘achieve' what t!he usual methods of prison rule have failed- to produce—'namely, a more rapid development of the 1 colony. The Freifcfr doctors in ‘the colony are picked men from the ■66l'qnial sbi'Vide'; The are the vir■ttt'al dictator’s to-day of the colony arid They declare that their hospital at St-Laurent-du-Maroni is now the best Oqu’ip’pdd in the French cOloriibs'. • Martinets Of the old school fre- ■ fluently’ quarrel' with the doctors. They declare that they are too lenient with the malingered. Tile disciplinarians are, however, a dying force, 'since it is the opirilbnrof the new Governor 1 that crimihals do not so much ■require punishment as’ medical treatment from the beginning of tlieir criminal tendencies. His policy is to 'treat crime as pathological rather

than as a delih'dfdtely cultivated taste. This line of policy has not yet (been completely worked out, but it is • being studied ,With’ a view to fuller application as experiments in modern methods are tested arid approved. I recently-visited the He Royale and- the lie St. Joseplr, which are close to Devil s Isle. These are used as punishment camps, for those convicts Who do not behave themselves on the mainland. Sentences of reclusion on these islands are promulgated by a travelling tribunal which visits all the camps in turn, and gives a miniature trial in erich case under the ordinary civil law of French Guiana. Disciplinary punishment, such as prevails in the army, is forbidden the warders, and every man

is allowed the right to address a letter Of complaint to the governor of the colony or the director of the gaol. The warders are obliged to provide ink and paper for this purpose, and when I made an examination of the official files I found that the privilege was constantly used. At the end of a punishment, ranging from live to' fifteen 1 years, the convict is free to settle in the colony in thb same way as an ordinary citizen, and may be graiited 1 a concession of land’ for farming or other purposes. Abuses in the gaol system could therefore '■easily be expobed- after discharge by convicts w r ho were ill-treated, or messages could be sent to the outer woild by other convicts whose time was oh the verge of expiring. Many such complaints were 1 made some years ago, bbt. few are made to-day- _ Most of the hardships have been mitigated since 1925, when a commission came out and abolished confinement in dark cells and bread abd water diet, and instituted many concessions to humane' ideas. •

The average convict to-day in Frenciy Guiana declares that punishment does not begin till he is' allowed out on' ticket-of-leave, for then he is faced. With the necessity of earning a living in a land where hitherto he has been fed, clothed, and housed by the Government. When lie comes Out on ticket-of-leave many of the local inhabitants, instead of welcoming the accession of new labour, set their faces against it, with the result that many time-expired men become bushrangers' and prey on industrious fellows who may be trying to make tlie best of circumstances and farm a concession; Some form part of escape bands, cross the river, frontier into Dutch Guiana or Brazil on the south, and' ebdeavour to make a livelihood. Others get as far as the West Melia Islands or Venezuela, and become cocks, hotel servants, or small tradesmen.

Gradually the authorities are recognising that the enforced period of ticket-of-leave in French Guiana is a failure. Penitentiary life has retarded th'e development of the colony. Facilities are thus being extended by which a man can apply for work in the interior of Brazil, Where there is to-day a remoter townships. A small but ibcrea'sing - number of men are granted permission to return to France, and every year the President of- the French Republic issues a number of pardons’ and remissions of sentences to celebrate the national holiday on Jlily 14.