The Lords of Discipline. The Penal Colony Guards of New Caledonia and Guyana
Given their remote location and great distance from France, guards in the penal colonies of New Caledonia and Guyana had immediate and total control over prison life. As such, they routinely engaged in the beating and torture of the bagnards, and even carried out public executions for those guilty o...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/chs, |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Crime, Histoire & Sociétés
2009
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Given their remote location and great distance from France, guards in the penal colonies of New Caledonia and Guyana had immediate and total control over prison life. As such, they routinely engaged in the beating and torture of the bagnards, and even carried out public executions for those guilty of legal and disciplinary infractions while in their charge. Were these men simply sadistic brutes, willing instruments of state-sanctioned violence? This article examines the institutional life and culture of the penal colony guard in an attempt to answer this question. Despite rhetoric that emphasized militarism as a means to assure discipline and surveillance in the penal colonies, and a professional structure designed to fashion and instill a sense of pride and purpose, the guards, like the prisoners, were beyond the pale; a group somehow rejected by their peers. Even with the establishment of a complex set of procedures, guidelines, and a system of appointments, perquisites, and promotions, the corps never took on the air of a professional military service as a variety of obstacles – structural and individual –impeded its development as an effective disciplinary apparatus of the bagnes. The guard lived in an occupational netherworld in which he was neither soldier nor bureaucrat, but a turnkey loathed by administrators and prisoners alike. |
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