Mediterraneans by Clancy-Smith Julia A.;

Author:Clancy-Smith, Julia A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2012-01-23T05:00:00+00:00

PUNISHMENTS, PRISONS, AND PRISONERS

Punishments ranged from fines and/or imprisonment, to expulsion, banishment, or deportation, although the porous nature of Tunisia’s water frontiers, and the number of small boats moving between the islands and African coast, meant that physical exile was not an effective measure. The issue of prisons raises the important question of incarceration for expatriate nonsubjects, which has attracted no scholarly attention. In the early nineteenth century, few if any of the consulates had prisons as such, although consulates held persons accused of nonviolent crimes—petty thievery or nonpayment of debts—in short-term confinement. Some foreign consulates eventually established detention facilities, although this did not preclude looking to Tunisian penal authorities for assistance. And as seen in the case of Nicola, the drunken solider, ships served as temporary places of incarceration for those awaiting transportation elsewhere.

Tunisian facilities had existed for centuries, although the state penal reform of 1860 and Khayr al-Din’s prison reforms of the 1870s modernized the system in accordance with European norms.72 The main centers of incarceration before the 1870s were the zandala (or zindala) at the Bardo; the karraka in La Goulette; and a prison in the madina’s Qasba district; later the police prison, the Dabtiya, was added. Originally a bagnio, the karraka had been transformed into a penitentiary for common-law prisoners condemned to forced labor. Chained in pairs with leg irons, inmates cleaned the streets of La Goulette or worked in the port. While the tasks were not terribly demanding, prison conditions—food, housing, and so forth—were deplorable. At times, a hundred men shared a single, large room; daily rations consisted of a bit of olive oil and several pieces of bread.73

When the need arose, the British consulate rented incarceration space in La Goulette from the Tunisian government, paying per head for each prisoner, the vast majority Maltese. There is mention of this practice in the sources from the late 1820s on; for example, in 1828 “two Maltese inebriated had a dispute in the streets with a Moor.” This conduct landed them in a Tunisian prison where they “remained confined until the disturbance passed away.”74 In 1850, a fairly typical year, there were nine Maltese males incarcerated in the karraka for which the consul paid “143 piasters or 5 pounds sterling, 12 shillings and six pence” for the entire year.75 Over a decade later, during the 1860s, another prison housed British prisoners in miserable conditions alongside convicted Tunisians, until pressure was brought to bear to separate the inmates according to nationality.76 Incarceration served not only punitive functions but also social and political goals—to allow tempers to cool as memory of some egregious incident subsided, to get troublemakers off the streets, or to demonstrate to other consuls or the Tunisian government that a crime, infraction, misdeed, or moral breach was taken seriously. For certain offenses, bail could be posted if family or friends could come up with the money needed. Tavern keepers, who had ready cash on hand, frequently offered security for the accused so that they could be freed until trial, although this would clearly favor the better off.

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