Bagne (penal establishment)

The galleys were originally port bagnes (or maritime bagnes), which explains why part of the vocabulary of bagne and the prison comes from the vocabulary of the galley slaves.

French colonial bagnes were established by a series of decrees in 1852 and 1853, supplemented by the Transportation Act of 1854. They were only abolished in 1938 (transportation to a bagne by deportation), and definitively abolished in 1945 (detention in a bagne). However, the last prisoners had to complete their sentences and were not released until 1953.{{Cite journal |last=Pierre |first=Michel |date=2006-01-01 |title=Le siècle des bagnes coloniaux (1852 - 1953) |url=https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/174 |journal=Criminocorpus. Revue d'Histoire de la justice, des crimes et des peines |language=fr |doi=10.4000/criminocorpus.174 |issn=2108-6907|doi-access=free }}

At the French Guiana penal colony, doubling the sentence meant that all convicts had to stay on after serving their sentence, for a period equivalent to their initial sentence.{{Citation |last=Forsdick |first=Charles |title='Bagne pas mort': Exploring Penal Heritage in French Guiana |date=2019 |work=Re-Imagining the Guyanas |pages=91–112 |editor-last=Aje |editor-first=Lawrence |url=https://books.openedition.org/pulm/5473 |access-date=2024-07-10 |series=Horizons anglophones |place=Montpellier |publisher=Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée |language=en |isbn=978-2-36781-363-9 |editor2-last=Lacroix |editor2-first=Thomas |editor3-last=Misrahi-Barak |editor3-first=Judith}}{{clarify|date=April 2025}}

File:FMIB 36944 Galere Ordinaire la Dauphine (1690-1715).jpeg

In France, the use of convicts as rowers on the royal galleys dates back to Jacques Cœur in the 15th century. The penalty of the galleys was systematically applied from Louis XIV onwards, under the impetus of Colbert, and particularly after 1685 to eradicate Protestantism following the Edict of Fontainebleau. The Galleys's arsenal was located in Marseille. The galleys were the first penitentiary system to be organized on a kingdom-wide scale. With the September 27, 1748 decree, Louis XV abolished the galley corps.{{Cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Meredith |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.4908211 |title=The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV's France |last2=Weiss |first2=Gillian |date=2022 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-730-7}}{{Cite journal |last=Weiss |first=Gillian |date=2014 |title=Ransoming "Turks" from France's Royal Galleys |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44329666 |journal=African Economic History |volume=42 |pages=37–57 |doi=10.3368/aeh.42.1.37 |jstor=44329666 |issn=0145-2258}}

Disembarked galley slaves, known as chrome, were then assigned to the port bagnes (except galley slaves selected for rowing) and were required to work in the Navy's ports and arsenals. The Toulon bagne, the Brest bagne and the Rochefort bagne were created for this purpose.{{Cite web |title=BAGNARDS A BREST by PHILIPPE HENWOOD: Bon Couverture souple (1986) {{!}} Le temps retrouvé |url=https://www.abebooks.com/BAGNARDS-BREST-PHILIPPE-HENWOOD-FRANCE/13509233240/bd |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=www.abebooks.com |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Roumagnac |first=Cyrille |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Nx1EAAAQBAJ |title=L'arsenal de Toulon et la Royale |date=2001 |publisher=Alan Sutton |isbn=978-2-84253-602-2 |language=fr}}

The Galères Royales, headed by a galley general independent of the Admiral of France and served by a special corps, was originally based in Marseille where all the prison facilities were located until the middle of the eighteenth century. The rowers generally remained on board when the galleys stayed in Toulon. But in 1748, Louis XV decreed the abolition of the Galères corps and their attachment to the Royal Navy.{{Cite journal |last=Filhol |first=Emmanuel |date=2020-06-02 |title=Bohémiens condamnés aux galères à l'époque du Roi-Soleil (1677 à 1715) |url=https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/7317 |journal=Criminocorpus. Revue d'Histoire de la justice, des crimes et des peines |language=fr |doi=10.4000/criminocorpus.7317 |issn=2108-6907|doi-access=free }}

File:Bagne de Toulon.jpg

Toulon became the base for the galleys that left Marseille for good, as its penal colony was abolished. From then on, Toulon had to house the convicts. At first, this was done on the galleys, to which vessels were added, and which came to be known as floating bagnes. By the end of the 18th century, there were some 3,000 convicts in Toulon.{{Cite web |title=Le bagne de Toulon |url=http://www.netmarine.net/forces/operatio/toulon/bagne.htm |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=www.netmarine.net}} They were mainly employed in heavy labor, earthworks, and construction, in the Arsenal and even in town. The convicts' clothing, consisting of a cap and a habit, differed in color according to the nature and reason for their sentence. Under the Ancien régime, convicts were branded with red iron. One foot was encircled by a ring fitted with a chain to immobilize them. The "toughest" were chained two by two; the ball and chain was a disciplinary punishment, along with caning with rope. These punishments gradually eased. Food, which included little meat and a ration of wine for the workers, was mostly based on dried vegetables, hence the name "gourgane" ("beans" in Provençal) given to their guards.{{Cite book |url=http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/Action-culturelle/Dossiers-du-mois/1506-Temoignages-sur-le-bagne/pages/Presentation-generale.html |title=Nouveaux témoignages sur le bagne}}

Due to the poor sanitary conditions, in 1777, a hospital was set up in the casemates of the southeast rampart of Darse Vauban, where additional buildings were erected against the rampart. Then, in 1797, the hospital moved to a huge 200-meter-long building, oriented north–south, built-in 1783 along the western quay of the Vieille Darse, called the "Grand Rang". This building had a vast vaulted first floor with three bays; the hospital occupied the first floor. Two square corner towers with pyramidal roofs completed the north and south sides; the convicts' chapel was housed in the northern tower. The rest of the building was used for administrative services. The able-bodied convicts had been housed where the hospital used to be. In 1814, they were moved to a 115-meter-long east–west building, perpendicular to the hospital, built in 1783 on the south-west quay of the Vieille Darse, between the Chaîne Vieille de la passe and the Grand Rang. Nearby, a ship known as the "Admiral" was moored to guard the channel and fire the morning and evening cannons.{{Cite book |last=LESUEUR |first=H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjlYAAAAcAAJ&dq=Vieille+Darse++bagne+Grand+Rang&pg=PA47 |title=Toulon. Nouveau guide du voyageur dans l'ancienne et la nouvelle ville, etc |date=1862 |language=fr}}

Attaching the penal colony to the navy made it easier to organize the workforce. Equipping and fitting out a first-rank vessel (over 100 guns, 3 decks) cost an average of 1{{Nbsp}}million livres tournois, or around 150{{Nbsp}}million euros today.A livre tournois in 1720 corresponded to 0.31 grams of pure gold, and the Franc germinal from 1805 to 1914 to 0.322 5 g of pure gold. Successive conflicts (the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, and then the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars) forced France to try to compete with the British fleet. The development of galleys in the arsenals of Toulon, Cherbourg, Brest, and Rochefort was directly linked to the need for forced labor to build and rebuild the French fleet. Although rare, galleys continued to be used during the Revolution, as demonstrated by the law of August 22, 1790, which imposed the penalty on thieves or carriers ashore of a ship's ammunition worth more than fifty francs. Some prisoners were convicted under the Ancien régime, with the penal code of 1791.

From the time of the Directoire and then the Empire, there was a return to a policy of repression. The number of convicts rose from 4,000 in 1795 to 10,000 in 1812. The 1810 Penal Code transformed the galley sentence into an iron penalty. This sentence did not change the way convict labor was carried out in the arsenals. It wasn't until the transportation policy was introduced in 1850 that the French prison system changed.{{Cite book |last=Pierre |first=Michel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVjoDQAAQBAJ |title=Le temps des bagnes 1748-1953 |date=2017-01-19 |publisher=Tallandier |isbn=979-10-210-0509-9 |language=fr}}

From the 1840s onwards, politicians wanted to remove criminals from France. This policy of transportation began with the military prisons (disciplinary companies) set up in Algeria at the start of the colonial conquest. This transfer was justified by promoting the colony's development, which transformed it into a penal colony.

The law of May 27, 1885, introduced relegation for repeat offenders, leading to "perpetual internment on the territory of French colonies or possessions": after their sentence, convicted repeat offenders could not return to metropolitan France. They must serve a double sentence of relegation equivalent to the duration of their hard labor sentence.{{Cite book |last=Teisseire |first=Édouard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElhIAAAAYAAJ&dq=loi+du+Mai+27,+1885+france+bagne&pg=PA69 |title=La transportation pénale et la relégation d'après les lois des 30 mai, 1854 et 27 mai, 1885: étude historique, juridique et critique ... |date=1893 |publisher=Larose |language=fr}}{{Cite journal |last=Sanchez |first=Jean-Lucien |date=2005-01-01 |title=La relégation (loi du 27 mai 1885) |url=https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/130?lang=it |journal=Criminocorpus. Revue d'Histoire de la justice, des crimes et des peines |language=fr |doi=10.4000/criminocorpus.130 |issn=2108-6907|doi-access=free }}{{Cite web |title=La loi instaurant la relégation des récidivistes (1885) – Famille Ginoux |url=https://ginoux.community/contexte-historique/la-loi-instaurant-la-relegation-des-recidivistes-1885/ |access-date=2024-07-08 |website=ginoux.community}} This is known as "doubling". Convicts refer to each other as "toughs", "those below", "crowbars", or "those above", to distinguish between first-time offenders ("toughs") and repeat offenders ("those above"). The prison administration does not mix them.{{Cite book |last1=Calloch |first1=Jean Marie |title=La Mort au ralenti |last2=Arnaut |first2=Robert |date=1979 |publisher=Mengès |isbn=978-2-85620-071-1 |location=Paris}} This would refer to the location of each group in the holds (top or bottom) of the prison ship (the Loire, then the Martinière) making the Atlantic crossing.{{Cite book |last=Sellin |first=J. Thorsten |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k_EWDAAAQBAJ&dq=Toulon+bagne&pg=PT130 |title=Slavery and the Penal System |date=2016-04-29 |publisher=Quid Pro Books |isbn=978-1-61027-339-8 |language=en}}

The maritime bagnes were then transferred to Cayenne in 1852, and to New Caledonia in 1864, at a time when the Navy was switching from sail to steam, making the need for manpower less important. This transfer was also because convicts from mainland France were taking work away from honest workers and were considered too dangerous to be kept in the country (police reports point to a relaxation of discipline in the maritime convict colonies). It was against this backdrop of European imperialism that Napoleon III instituted colonial penal colonies with the law of May 30, 1854, article 1 of which stipulates that "in future, the penalty of hard labor will be served in establishments created by decree of the Emperor, on the territory of one or more French possessions other than Algeria. Nevertheless, in the event of an impediment to the transfer of convicts, and until such impediment has ceased, the sentence will be temporarily served in France".{{Cite book |last1=nationales (France) |first1=Archives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2x4fAAAAMAAJ |title=Etablissements pénitentiaires coloniaux, 1792-1952, série Colonies H: répertoire numérique |last2=Clair |first2=Sylvie |last3=Krakovitch |first3=Odile |last4=Préteux |first4=Jean |date=1990 |publisher=Archives nationales |isbn=978-2-86000-185-4 |language=fr}}

In 1836, the Toulon prison had 4,305 inmates, 1,193 of whom were sentenced to life: 174 to over 20 years, 382 to between 16 and 20 years, 387 to between 11 and 15 years, 1,469 to between 5 and 10 years and 700 to less than 5 years. Many famous convicts spent time here, including Vidocq in 1799, Marie Lafarge in 1840, and the impostor Pierre Coignard. As for Jean Valjean, he was Victor Hugo's imagination.{{Cite book |last=Hugo |first=Victor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taUrWQjallUC&dq=Toulon+bagne&pg=PA175 |title=Les Misérables |date=1863 |publisher=West & Johnston |language=en}} The Toulon penal colony ceased to exist in 1873. Its buildings were distributed among various military services involved in coastal defense, including the Centre d'études de la Marine and the Artillerie de côte. They survived until 1944 when they were almost destroyed.

On September 4, 1891, the implementing decree on prison disciplinary regulations prohibited convicts from receiving any remuneration for their work. However, after the publication of the decree, convicts (the lightest sentences and transported prisoners who had completed their sentence) continued to receive a salary when they worked for the prison administration. They can also work on their account.{{Cite book |last=Terrail |first=Pierre Alexis de Ponson du |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dks6mwEACAAJ |title=Le Bagne de Toulon |date=1866 |publisher=Dentu |language=fr}}

Under the Second Empire and the Third Republic, deportation was reserved for spies, political activists, and traitors (Alfred Dreyfus, though subsequently found innocent, was sentenced to deportation). As French political prisoners, deportees were not required to work. This was not the case for prisoners from the colonies. Transportation applied to convicts sentenced to forced labor. It was accompanied by doubling the sentence: anyone sentenced to less than 8 years of hard labor had to reside in the colony for a period equal to that of the sentence, under house arrest.

After 1868, the cost of the return journey to France or North Africa remained the responsibility of the convict. However, due to the lack of work in the region, most released convicts were rarely able to pay for their return.{{Cite book |title=A global history of convicts and penal colonies |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-00069-8 |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Clare |location=London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney}} For sentences of hard labor exceeding eight years: after serving their sentence, convicts were assigned to reside in the colony for the rest of their lives. Convicts were divided into categories (law of May 1854):

• transported 1st class: sentenced to hard labor.
• transported 2nd class: sentenced to imprisonment.
• transported 3rd class, 1st section: convicts in breach of the law.
• transported 3rd class, 2nd section: affiliated with secret societies (these are political convicts).
• transported 4th class, 1st section (commonly known as doublage): released prisoners required to reside in French Guiana.
• transported, 4th class, 2nd section: released prisoners required to reside in French Guiana.

The first three categories could be authorized to work outside penitentiaries and camps for private individuals (family boys) or the administration. They could also receive a concession (land to develop) and, later, an urban concession (bakery or other work of collective interest).

• Assignees worked for private individuals, including prison officials, who received their wages (the family boys).

The sentence of relegation did not apply to any particular offense. It was enough to have been convicted several times to be relegated to French Guiana. Relegation was always for life. There were two types of relegués:

• collectives, living in a camp, fed and housed, obliged to work, but receiving only 2/3 of their salary,
• individuals who have their resources and only receive a quarterly call-up.

The French army also set up colonial military prisons in North Africa, intended for strong-headed convicts and the military service of common-law convicts. The convicted soldiers were derisively called "joyeux" (happy). From 1889 (introduction of compulsory national service for convicts from civil courts), many of the soldiers from the special corps (from Biribi) made their way through the following bagne archipelago: correctional homes for minors (Petite-Roquette and other prisons for minors) and penal colonies (Colonie de Mettray and other colonies), colonial bagnes in North Africa, Bagne de Cayenne.{{Cite book |last=Toth |first=Stephen A. |title=Beyond Papillon: the French overseas penal colonies, 1854 - 1952 |date=2006 |publisher=Univ. of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-4449-8 |series=France overseas |location=Lincoln, Neb.}}{{Cite web |date=2008-07-20 |title=Famous Lasts The Last Prisoner on Devil's Island |url=http://www.trivia-library.com/b/famous-lasts-the-last-prisoner-on-devil-island.htm |access-date=2024-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720041238/http://www.trivia-library.com/b/famous-lasts-the-last-prisoner-on-devil-island.htm |archive-date=July 20, 2008 }}{{Cite journal |last=Krakovitch |first=Odile |date=1985-06-01 |title=Les archives des bagnes de Cayenne et de Nouvelle-Calédonie : la sous-série colonies H aux archives nationales. |url=https://journals.openedition.org/rh19/4 |journal=Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle. Société d'histoire de la révolution de 1848 et des révolutions du XIXe siècle |language=fr |issue=1 |doi=10.4000/rh19.4 |issn=1265-1354}}

The agricultural and maritime penal colonies for minors were veritable schools for crime. Following the 1810 penal code's separation of adults and children, some experiments were made on juvenile delinquents. Another agricultural colony experiment began in 1824. Young inmates from the Gaillon Central Prison were sent to work in the fields daily.{{Cite journal |last=Poulain |first=France |date=2022-08-23 |title=Le Château de Gaillon : un passé carcéral volontairement oublié |url=https://journals.openedition.org/insitu/35989?lang=en |journal=In Situ. Revue des patrimoines |language=fr |issue=48 |doi=10.4000/insitu.35989 |issn=1630-7305|doi-access=free }} A colony was set up there in 1847 due to the acquisition of the Douaires farm. This institution closed in 1925. In 1832, Count d'Argout proposed apprenticeships for these children, but this proposal was not accepted, and in 1836, a prison was set up for children: Petite-Roquette in Paris. In 1840, the first private agricultural colony was set up in Mettray, Indre-et-Loire.{{Cite book |last=Toth |first=Stephen A. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvfc53fk |title=Mettray: A History of France's Most Venerated Carceral Institution |date=2019 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-4018-3 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctvfc53fk }} It was intended for juvenile delinquents who were to be employed in agricultural work. Following this, the law of August 5, 1850, generalized this type of establishment, and some fifty private agricultural colonies were set up throughout France.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-03 |title=Sur l'île du Levant, le bagne des enfants revient à la mémoire |url=https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/2013/03/06/sur-l-ile-du-levant-le-bagne-des-enfants-revient-la-memoire-211533.html |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |language=fr-FR}} An agricultural penal colony was also established at Le Luc in the Gard department from 1856 to 1904.{{Cite web |last=legadjo |date=2014-10-08 |title=Colonie agricole et pénitentiaire du Luc (Genèse) |url=https://baguenaudes.net/colonie-penitentiaire-du-luc-1/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Baguenaudes |language=fr-FR}}{{Cite web |date=2014-06-12 |title=Les oubliés du causse |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/l-atelier-de-la-creation-14-15/les-oublies-du-causse-4816855 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=France Culture |language=fr}}{{Cite book |last=Belser |first=Christophe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knNIzwEACAAJ |title=Le bagne des enfants: la colonie pénitentiaire de Belle-Île-en-Mer |date=2022 |publisher=DB |isbn=978-2-8129-2778-2 |language=fr}}

On January 8, 1861, on Île du Levant, the Sainte-Anne agricultural penal colony was officially authorized to open. Its aim was to clear the island's land for cultivation.{{Cite web |title=l'Ile du Levant et les bagnes pour enfants |url=https://www.greffiernoir.com/l-ile-du-levant-et-les-bagnes-pour-enfants |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=www.greffiernoir.com |language=fr}} The first contingent arrived on March 23, 1861. When the Ajaccio children's prison closed, 65 convicts were transferred to Sainte-Anne on September 28, 1866. A revolt broke out on October 2, leading to the deaths of more than a dozen children, before order was restored on the island on October 4 by an army and gendarmerie detachment. A trial followed in January 1867. The colony was finally evacuated on November 23, 1878. A memorial has been erected on the site of the cemetery, consisting of a stone with plaques listing the names of the children who died there.{{Cite web |title=Greffier Noir |url=https://www.greffiernoir.com/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=www.greffiernoir.com |language=fr}}

File:Île du Levant. Pénitencier. Plan.jpg|Plan of the Sainte-Anne penitentiary

File:Île du Levant. Pénitencier. Fabrique de pipes.jpg|The pipe factory

File:Île du Levant. Pénitencier.jpg|View of the children's penitentiary

File:Île du Levant - Pénitencier - Dortoirs.jpg|The dormitory

File:Marine France conge du bagne.jpgFor insubordinate offenders from the agricultural colonies and for children under 16 sentenced to more than 2 years, the state set up a more repressive structure called "Colonie Correctionnelle".{{Citation |last=Messineo |first=Dominique |title=Chapitre II. Les colonies pénitentiaires (loi du 5 août 1850) |date=2015 |work=Jeunesse irrégulière : Moralisation, correction et tutelle judiciaire au XIXe siècle |pages=81–125 |url=https://books.openedition.org/pur/90220 |access-date=2024-07-11 |series=Histoire |place=Rennes |publisher=Presses universitaires de Rennes |language=fr |isbn=978-2-7535-6062-8}} This penal institution for young inmates was set up in Corsica, in the Ajaccio region, in the Saint-Antoine valley, under the name of Colonie correctionnelle de Saint-Antoine.{{Cite web |title=Enfants en justice - Saint-Antoine (1855-1866) |url=https://enfantsenjustice.fr/?saint-antoine-1855-1866 |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=Enfants en justice}} The establishment was a state-run detention center, a veritable children's penal colony. They were abolished, along with the agricultural colonies, with the 1945 Ordinance on delinquent children.

It was the 1934 revolt of the Belle-Île-en-Mer colony{{Cite web |date=2020-03-01 |title=1934. La révolte des enfants du bagne de Belle-Île |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/autant-en-emporte-l-histoire/1934-la-revolte-des-enfants-du-bagne-de-belle-ile-1497962 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=France Inter |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=La colonie pénitentiaire de Belle-Ile |url=https://patrimoines-archives.morbihan.fr/decouvrir/instants-dhistoire/les-millesimes-du-patrimoine/la-colonie-penitentiaire-de-belle-ile |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=patrimoines-archives.morbihan.fr}} that led to the 1945 reform.{{Cite web |last=NatGeoFrance |date=2021-03-29 |title=De l'isolement aux "bagnes pour enfants" : l'impitoyable justice des mineurs française |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/histoire/de-lisolement-aux-bagnes-pour-enfants-limpitoyable-justice-des-mineurs-francaise |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=National Geographic |language=fr}} This revolt inspired Jacques Prévert's poem La chasse à l'enfant. Jean Genet recounts his journey from the Mettray penal colony to the Fontevrault power station in Miracle de la Rose.

In October 2020,{{Cite web |last=Feuvre |first=Delphine Le |date=2021-01-27 |title=A La Réunion, un "bagne d'enfants" sous l'œil des archéologues |url=https://www.geo.fr/histoire/a-la-reunion-un-penitencier-pour-enfants-mis-au-jour-pour-la-premiere-fois-en-france-203546 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Geo.fr |language=fr}} an archaeological excavation campaign on Reunion Island studied the island's agricultural penal colony. This former children's penitentiary on îlet à Guillaume was founded in 1864 and run by the Missionary Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Up to 4,000 children were confined here.{{Cite web |date=2021-01-31 |title=La colonie pénitentiaire de l'Ilet à Guillaume : un bagne pour enfants dans les hauts de Saint-Denis |url=https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/reunion/saint-denis/la-colonie-penitentiaire-de-l-ilet-a-guillaume-un-bagne-pour-enfants-dans-les-hauts-de-saint-denis-922198.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Réunion la 1ère |language=fr-FR}} Its closure was ordered in 1871, but only became effective in 1879. It has been listed as a Historic Monument since 2008.{{Cite book |last=Danjou |first=Henri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GPnDwAAQBAJ |title=Enfants du malheur ! Les bagnes d'enfants |date=2020-05-06 |publisher=La Manufacture de livres |isbn=978-2-35887-427-4 |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=Colonies pénitentiaires pour mineurs {{!}} ENAP |url=https://www.enap.justice.fr/histoire/colonies-penitentiaires-pour-mineurs |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=www.enap.justice.fr}}

On the initiative of the Guyanese Gaston Monnerville, undersecretary for the Colonies, a decree-law of June 17, 1938, signed by French President Albert Lebrun abolished deportation, but detention in a penal colony remained in force until 1945. On August 1, 1953, the last convicts and their supervisors returned to France.{{Cite web |title=La fin du bagne |url=https://geneablog.typepad.fr/geneablog/2008/06/la-fin-du-bagne.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Geneablog.fr}}{{Cite journal |last=Germain |first=Charles |date=1954 |title=Postwar Prison Reform in France |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1028405 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=293 |pages=139–151 |doi=10.1177/000271625429300117 |jstor=1028405 |issn=0002-7162}}

{{col-begin}}{{col-1-of-2}}

• Brest prison (Brest)
• Bagne de Lorient (Lorient)
• Bagne de Havre (Le Havre)
• Bagne de Cherbourg (Cherbourg)

{{col-2-of-2}}

• Bagne de Nice (Nice)
• Rochefort lagoon (Rochefort)
• Bagne of Toulon (Toulon)
• Dépôt de Condamnés de Saint-Martin-de-Ré{{Cite web |date=2013-08-13 |title=Ile de Ré : derrière le décor de carte postale, la prison |url=https://www.sudouest.fr/charente-maritime/saint-martin-de-re/ile-de-re-derriere-le-decor-de-carte-postale-la-prison-8637893.php |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=SudOuest.fr |language=fr-FR}} (Saint-Martin-de-Ré)
• Bagne de Belle-Île-en-Mer (Belle-Île-en-Mer){{col-end}}

{{Location map many|World|width=400|float=center|label1=French Guyana|coordinates1={{coord|5|16|59|N|52|34|59|W}}|label2=Poulo Condor|coordinates2={{coord|8|41|20|N|106|36|53|E}}|label3=Nosy Lava|coordinates3={{coord|19|22|59|S|46|22|59|E}}|label4=New Caledonia|coordinates4={{coord|21|15|S|165|18|E}}|label5=Tataouine|coordinates5={{coord|32|56|47|N|10|26|33|E}}}}{{col-begin}}{{col-1-of-3}}

There is only one prison in French Guiana, but it is made up of several camps and penitentiaries.{{Cite book |last1=MacLeod |first1=Catriona |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tnVvEAAAQBAJ&dq=bagne&pg=PA45 |title=Locating Guyane |last2=Wood |first2=Sarah |date=2018-05-01 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78694-866-3 |language=en}}

• Cayenne penal colony (Cayenne)
• Bagne des Îles du Salut (dependent on Cayenne)
• Mana penal colony (or women's penal colony)
• Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni penal colony (Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and Saint-Jean-du-Maroni)
• Camp Charvein (also known as "Camp de la Mort")
• Camp Crique Anguille (Montsinéry-Tonnegrande), also known as the "Bagne des Annamites", where Indochinese opponents of French colonization were held.
• Hattes camp
• Camp du kilomètre quarante
• Îlet Saint Louis camp
• Montagne d'Argent camp
• Saint Augustin camp
• Sainte Anne camp
• Sainte Marguerite camp
• Sainte Marie camp
• Saint Georges camp
• Camp de Saint Jean
• Camp de Saint Maurice
• Camp de Saint Philippe
• Saint Pierre camp
• Sparouine camp
• Camp des Malgaches
• Organabo camp
• Camp Godebert
• Camp La Forestière
• Camp Saut Tigre
• Nouveau Camp
• Îlet la Mère Penitentiary
• Kourou Penitentiary (Kourou){{col-2-of-3}}

• New Caledonia penal colony
• Nouméa penal colony (Nouméa)
• Ile des Pins penal colony
• Camp Brun

Communards were deported there.

• Domaine de la Providence Penitentiary
• Islet à Guillaume penal colony for children

The Nosy Lava penal colony is on the island of Nosy Lava.{{col-3-of-3}}

There were 11 penitentiaries in this territory.{{Harvtxt|Liauzu|2007|p=536}} Until 1938, some of the Indochinese convicts were transported to other French prison sites to make up for the shortage of manpower due to losses in living conditions.

• Poulo Condor prison
• Lao Bảo Prison, built in 1896 in Annam.{{Cite web |title=Terre de bagne en mer de Chine : Poulo Condore (1862-1953) - Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières |url=http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article8969#nb2-10 |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=www.europe-solidaire.org}}
• Buôn Ma Thuột (Buon Ma Thuat), Buon Me Thuat or Ban Mê Thuột) prison, established in 1932 in Cochinchina.
• Son La Prison (vi), established in 1932 in Tonkin.
• Kon Tum prison.
• Phú Quốc prison.
• Phong Saly in Laos.

During the Napoleonic era, Italy boasted the bagnes of Genoa, Civitavecchia and La Spezia.{{Cite book |url=http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/PDFs/General/Note-dorientation-bagnes.pdf |title=Note d'orientation dans les archives relatives aux bagnes pour des recherchers d'ordre généalogique/biographique - archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr}}

• Tataouine penal colony (Tataouine, Tunisia).
• Biribi penal colony (Algeria).
• Douera/Bône penal colony (Algeria).{{Cite journal |last=Biskri |first=Nadia |date=2019-06-15 |title=Un établissement pénitentiaire singulier dans «l'archipel punitif» de l'armée française en Algérie : L'établissement des fers de Douera puis de Bône (1855-1858) |journal=L'Année du Maghreb |volume=20 |language=fr |issue=20 |pages=35–57 |doi=10.4000/anneemaghreb.4458 |issn=1952-8108|doi-access=free }}{{col-end}}

The figure of the convict and the penitentiary were to inspire the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Victor Hugo, in Les Misérables, Jean Valjean and the chain gang to the Toulon penal colony.

• journalistic investigations by writer Jacques Dhur on the Biribi penal colony before 1914, and by Albert Londres on Cayenne and Biribi in 1923 and 1924
• internment of political opponents in a bagne: Communards in Nouméa, anarchists, and anti-militarists in Biribi, Dreyfus, on Devil's Island.
• song, in particular Aristide Bruand in A Biribi,{{Cite book |last=Landre |first=Jeanne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ju9JAQAAIAAJ&q=Aristide+Bruand+in+A+Biribi |title=Aristide Bruant. - Paris: La Nouv. Soc. d'ed. (1930). 236 S. 8° |date=1930 |publisher=La Nouvelle société d'édition |language=fr}} Édith Piaf in Mon légionnaire.
• popular literature: Un civil chez les joyeux, Mac Orlan Le Bataillon de la mauvaise chance.
• memories of former convicts:
• Papillon by Henri Charrière
• René Belbenoit in Dry guillotine, Les compagnons de la belle
• Georges Darien in Biribi, discipline militaire{{Cite book |last=Darien |first=Georges |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idy3oQEACAAJ |title=Biribi: Discipline Militaire |date=2013-04-14 |publisher=Hachette Livre - BNF |isbn=978-2-01-287287-5 |language=fr}}
• Vidocq in his memoirs.{{Cite book |last1=Vidocq |first1=François |title=Mémoires Les voleurs |last2=Lacassin |first2=Francis |date=1998 |publisher=R. Laffont |isbn=978-2-221-08040-5 |series=Bouquins |location=Paris}}
• Jean Genet's memories of the Mettray penal colony and of prison in Le Miracle de la Rose.

• Papillon by Franklin J. Schaffner, released in 1973, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
• Les Ombres du Bagne, a documentary film shot in Saint Laurent.{{Cite web |title=Bébélé |url=https://97320.com/Bebele_a809.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=Saint-Laurent du Maroni, Capitale de l'ouest de la Guyane Française |language=fr}}
• Les enfants du Bagne, a 2009 documentary directed by Nicolas Lévy-Beff.{{Cite journal |last=Sanchez |first=Jean-Lucien |date=2017-09-01 |title=La discipline au bagne colonial |journal=Criminocorpus, revue hypermédia |doi=10.4000/criminocorpus.3570 |issn=2108-6907|doi-access=free }}

• Penal colony
• Penal labour
• Penal transportation
• Vichy France
• Mettray Penal Colony
• Bagnio
• Devil's Island
• Galley
• Pierre Arnoul

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Collectif sous la direction de Claude Liauzu |title=Dictionnaire de la colonisation française |date=2007 |publisher=Larousse |isbn=978-2035833433| ref = {{SfnRef|Liauzu|2007}} }}

• {{Cite book |last1=Cherrier |first1=Bernard |title=Bagnard pour la République, journal d'Hilaire Maréchal, proscrit du 2 décembre 1851 |last2=Tierchant |first2=Hélène |date=2014 |publisher=Éditions Le Sémaphore |isbn=9782352260332}}
• {{Cite book |title=Cayenne, matricule 51793 / Bande-dessinée de Stéphane Blanco et Laurent Perrin |date=2013 |isbn=978-2-9545678-0-8 |last1=Blanco |first1=Stéphane |publisher=BDlibre }}
• {{Cite book |last=Denis |first=Jacques |title=Forçats corses, déportations au bagne de Toulon (1748-1873) |date=2011 |publisher=Éditions Privat}}
• {{Cite book |title=Histoire des prisons en France 1789-2000 ouvrage collectif |date=2002 |publisher=éditions Privat}}
• {{Cite book |title=La colonie horticole de Saint Antoine, le bagne pour enfants d'Ajaccio sous le second Empire |date=2009 |publisher=René Santoni édition}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kalifa |first=Dominique |title=Biribi |date=2009 |publisher=édition Perrin}}
• {{Cite book |last=Londres |first=Albert |title=Au bagne |date=1923 |publisher=éditions Albin Michel}}
• {{Cite book |last=Belbenoît |first=René |title=Les compagnons de la belle traduit de l'Américain "Dry guillotine" |date=1938 |publisher=éditions de France}}
• {{Cite book |last=Charrière |first=Henri |title=Papillon |date=1968 |publisher=Poche Pocket}}
• {{Cite book |last=Laffont |first=Robert |title=Mémoires de Vidocq, chef de la police de Sûreté, jusqu'en 1827, coll. "Bouquins" |date=1998}}
• {{Cite book |last=Aubert |first=Pierre |title=Histoire de la déportation à Cayenne, Chalons-sur-Marne, J.-L. Le Roy |date=1868}}
• {{Cite book |last=Almire Lepelletier de la Sarthe |title=Système pénitentiaire : le bagne, la prison cellulaire, la déportation, Le Mans, Monnoyer |date=1853}}
• {{Cite book |last=Alhoy |first=Maurice |title=Les bagnes: histoires, types; mœurs, mystères, Paris, Gustave Havard, Dutertre et Michel Lévy Frères |date=1845}}
• {{Cite book |last=Laffon de Ladébat |first=André-Daniel |title=Journal de ma déportation à la Guyane française, Paris |date=1912 |publisher=Société d’éditions littéraires et artistiques}}
• {{Cite book |last=Minande |first=Paul |title=Forçats et proscrits, Paris |date=1897 |publisher=Calmann Lévy}}
• {{Cite book |last=Engerand |first=Fernand |title=Ange Pitou: Agent royaliste et chanteur des rues (1767-1846) |date=1899 |publisher=Ernest Leroux}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Darquitain |first1=V. |title=La grande géhenne, Paris, Librairie des sciences politiques et sociales |last2=Le Boucher |first2=L. |date=1928}}
• {{Cite book |title=Albert Londres: Au Bagne |date=1997 |publisher=Édition Seuil}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Barbé de Marbois |first=François |date=1835 |title=Journal d'un déporté non jugé, ou déportation en violation des lois, décrétée le 18 fructidor an V, t. 1, Paris, Chatet, Fourcier J |journal=Manioc}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Richer |title=Maréchal de France, vice-Amiral, & vice-Roi de l'Amérique et de Victor-Marie d'Estrées, son fils, Duc & Pair, Maréchal de France, vice-Amiral, & vice (Roi de l'Amérique) |last2=Vies de Jean d’Estrées |last3=Duc |last4=Pair |date=1786 |publisher=}}
• {{Cite book |last=Flotat |first=Roger |title=Au plus chaud de l'enfer du bagne |date=1959 |publisher=les Éditions du Scorpion |location=Paris}}

• [http://fvidocq.free.fr/bagne.html Site with some information, quotations from Vidocq's "Mémoires" about the penal colony]
• [http://www.cgnorvillois.org/bagnes.html Les bagnes descendants des galères]
• [http://gmarchal.free.fr/Le%20Bagne%20de%20Guyane/Chronologie.htm History of the penal colony in French Guiana]
• [http://www.lexpress.fr/region/c-eacute-tait-le-bagne_489768.html 1854-1953 : C'était le bagne...], [http://www.lexpress.fr/region/c-eacute-tait-le-bagne_489768.html interview with Marion Godfroy, collected by Marianne Payot, published 03/05/2004 (updated 23/10/2006), lexpress.fr]
• [https://criminocorpus.org/fr/expositions/bagnes/bagne-des-iles-du-salut/ Le bagne des Iles du Salut (Royal, Saint Joseph, Diable])
• Authority notes: [http://d-nb.info/gnd/4270286-0 GND]

Category:Forced labour

Category:Penal labour

Category:Penal imprisonment

Category:Penal systems by country

Category:Penal system in France

Category:1850 in France