The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1823 The Dirty Prison

The Austrian Empire's police system was terrible, especially its prison system, which was the worst of the worst.

Franz knew that prisons in the past were extremely dark, and his teachers had also told him about the chaos in the Austrian judicial system.

However, Franz then realized that the law professor he had spoken to back then was too conservative; there was something fishy about almost every aspect.

Paying money can not only get you a better cell and better food, but also visitation rights and even the right to leave temporarily.

In 1848, taking advantage of the civil war, Franz carried out a comprehensive reform, which essentially eliminated the practice of serving sentences on paper in the Austrian Empire.

Because many of those imprisoned at the time were serious criminals, political prisoners, and even war criminals. According to Franz's provisional decree, providing convenience to these individuals was considered complicity, and many police families who refused to submit to his authority were completely wiped out.

This blatant trend came to an abrupt end, and Franz also implemented other reforms, such as establishing a tiered system and a parole system.

In fact, the prison at that time was also known as the "Criminal University" because of the limited conditions and lack of attention at the time, so many prisoners were concentrated in one place.

Homeless people and first-time thieves are often locked up with robbers, murderers, and mental patients. What was originally a petty thief or hooligan ends up being portrayed as a ruthless villain.

A prison held a few eloquent political prisoners, and as a result, all the prisoners in the prison became political prisoners.

In his book "My Prison," Italian patriotic poet and playwright Silvio Perico recounts how a first-time offender was gradually molded into a monster by the evil and madmen in the prison.

Not only that naive boy, but even he has learned to sneak in and pick locks.

The Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky also said this.

"The only thing you can learn in prison is depravity."

Regardless of the type of person, prison represents a comprehensive strengthening of their control or rehabilitation.

The parole system is a form of care for minor offenders and those on the verge of death, giving them a chance to start anew.

As for serious offenders, unfortunately, in this era, the only salvation for serious offenders in the Austrian Empire was to seek a new life in the colonies or on the battlefield.

Given the conditions of the 1850s, the Austrian Empire did not yet possess the capacity to reform and rehabilitate serious offenders.

Rather than risking the lives and property of other citizens, it would be better to put them in cages or make them do hard labor, which would be a way of handing them over to professionals.

This was determined by the objective conditions of the 19th century. Without surveillance and professional police officers to follow the offender throughout the process, it would be extremely dangerous to release a serious criminal rashly.

There is a somewhat inaccurate statistic that in the mid-18th and 19th centuries in Britain and France, the recidivism rate among serious offenders was as high as 70%.

It may sound unbelievable at first, but in reality, serious offenders usually serve very long sentences and are often in their forties or fifties when they are released.

Imagine a middle-aged man who has no relatives or friends, no money, and only knows how to be violent, thieving, and swindling. He has accumulated a lot of resentment in prison. What would he do after he gets out of prison? What could he do?
That's why severe punishment was the mainstream at the time, because they saw examples of already ferocious criminals becoming even more ruthless after their release from prison.

The criminals will not only fail to reform, but will likely become even more ruthless. Rather than releasing them to randomly persecute innocent people, it would be better to eliminate them completely to prevent future troubles.

Franz from later generations wasn't so crazy. He thought it was more reasonable to make serious criminals serve hard labor to compensate the victims' families for their atonement and to pay for their own imprisonment.

Some people will definitely wonder, how could those hardened criminals possibly work obediently?

Franz could only say that modern people don't really understand the overseers of ancient times. No matter what kind of evil person they were, even wild beasts and livestock had to obey them.

Kicks to the heart and dragon fruit are nothing compared to whips dipped in salt water.

In addition to these physical attacks, there are also psychological attacks. Many people think the words "solitary confinement" are too simple.

Many prison movies depict prisoners deliberately assaulting guards to gain entry into solitary confinement, then working together to escape.

In reality, the solitary confinement cells in those movies shouldn't be called solitary confinement cells; they should be called ordinary prison cells.

A real solitary confinement cell is usually only 2-3 square meters, and a person can only stand or lie down inside.

In 19th-century prisons, solitary confinement cells were typically only 1.5 square meters, and the height was sometimes deliberately lowered, so that people inside could not stand up and could only curl up in a ball.

In a place like this, let alone being locked up for seven days, you'd be a hero if you could survive three. To be alive and kicking after seven days is practically superhuman.

Of course, solitary confinement, a form of punishment that would strike fear into the hearts of people in modern times, was merely an appetizer in the nineteenth century.

In addition to solitary confinement cells, there are also restraint beds, which are actually similar to massage beds, except that the opening is at the bottom.

A similar scene can be found in Frankenstein's monster, where criminals are completely strapped to the bed with iron hoops and leather straps, and can only eat, drink, and relieve themselves in bed, with the only parts of their bodies that can move being their eyes and mouth.

This is actually a potentially deadly form of punishment, because lying on a restraint bed for a long time can really cause bedsores.

There are many other forms of torture beyond this, and even if someone has a will of steel, their body cannot withstand them.

In the Austrian Empire, serious criminals could only atone for their crimes by performing well in hard labor camps and having someone vouch for them, by going to the colonies or the battlefield.

The specific circumstances depend on the severity of their sins, but their chances of completing their atonement alive are not high.

However, the Austrian Empire had a strong religious character, and for these serious criminals, death was considered part of atonement.

In fact, the task of reforming prisoners should be left to the church; the Austrian church doesn't support idlers.

Since they have become priests, they must fulfill the sacred duties they speak of.

If a priest is unable or unwilling to fulfill his duties, he should be excommunicated or removed from the priesthood; the specific judgment will depend on the circumstances.

Normally, they will only be forced to return to secular life, but if they have previously used their clergy status for personal gain or exercised certain rights that are only available to clergy members, they may be excommunicated.

Excommunicated from the church is a huge stain in a religiously charged country like the Austrian Empire, and it will affect their lives in every way afterward, unless they leave Austria.

Franz didn’t really have any hope that the priests could reform serious offenders, but they could indeed offer some redemption and comfort in such circumstances.

Franz's real purpose in demanding the church's intervention was to prevent corruption and extreme situations within the prison.

Clergy are unlikely to turn a blind eye to abuse and torture; their presence is essentially that of a third party acting as oversight.

Because the two sides are not under each other's jurisdiction, it is difficult for the prison authorities to control their behavior. Moreover, if a clergy member dies in prison under mysterious circumstances, the prison authorities will face even greater trouble.

In addition, the church can provide some spiritual comfort, reducing the possibility of serious offenders launching riots.

People are more likely to choose religion when they are confused and desperate, but they are also easily swayed by changes in their environment. Therefore, in the Austrian Empire, serious criminals had to perform atonement in order to be forgiven.

For minor and medium-sized offenders, labor reform is still the main approach, but the working environment is usually not dangerous and the intensity of labor is not very high.

In fact, disciplining criminals is one aspect, but making criminals work can also save costs and maintain the operation of the prison.

The prisons of the Austrian Empire were not privately run; they relied primarily on state funding.

Therefore, the large number of prisoners is a major headache for the Austrian government. If they are not allowed to earn some money to save expenses, Austrian officials and the public will always be staunch supporters of severe punishment.

In fact, labor reform can help these criminals reintegrate into society better. In Austrian Imperial prisons, prisoners can receive a certain percentage of their earnings for labor.

This money will serve as their start-up capital for reintegration into society, and they can also use it to enroll in skills classes while in prison.

The church plays a greater role in dealing with minor offenders because churches in Austria are somewhat similar to neighborhood committees; priests can help find jobs and even partners.

In theory, Franz had solved the problem of releasing prisoners, but he overlooked the problems of the prison itself.

In fact, the entire prison system begins operating as soon as the prisoner is arrested.

If you don't want to stay in a dirty and damp ordinary cell during your detention, you can move into a better quality cell for just 20 florins, and a clean and comfortable single room for 50 florins.

Five florins can buy you a meal outside of prison, and 100 florins can save you from torture.
What's most frightening is that these prices are clearly marked, with absolutely no concealment, and even Vienna is not immune.

The evidence was easy to find, because those people had actually made these items into a menu, and even explicitly told the special agents sent by Franz that if they didn't pay, they would send people to be locked up with death row inmates and serious criminals.

There's even forced spending involved!

However, this was not the most frustrating thing for Franz. He had clearly established a system of grading prisons based on severity, but it was deliberately ignored.

The Austrian Empire's police and prison systems collaborated to create an internal triage system, ensuring that regardless of court rulings, power ultimately remained in their hands.

So, as long as you can afford the accommodation fee, you can go to the prison originally used to hold minor offenders, while if you can't afford it, you will go to a hard labor camp, and if you pay enough, you can even go to a special prison.

In ordinary prisons, they knew to restrain themselves to some extent, but in special prisons, the Austrian Empire's police and prison systems joined forces directly, bypassing the church and surveillance systems under the pretext of preventing the leakage of secrets, so they were most rampant.

These special prisons have facilities comparable to resorts, food, clothing, and daily necessities comparable to top hotels, and the prison guards are hired directly from the servant market.

Entertainment facilities were plentiful, including escort services and opium and morphine, which were contraband in the Austrian Empire.

Although the prisoners could not leave the prison, they could use telegrams to communicate with the outside world at any time.

As for Franz's policies, they all became tools for the Austrian police to make money. The fruits of the prisoners' hard work all went into their pockets, and they even beat and insulted the prisoners in order to make them generate more value.

Of course, few people could walk out of prison alive under the cruelty of these officials, and most Austrians did not believe that there were any good people in prison, so even if someone stated the facts, no one believed them and no one cared.

Supplies sent by prisoners' families are often intercepted by prison guards for resale, and there is even a dedicated industry chain for this.

An Austrian censor sent a marked winter coat to a prisoner, which was eventually found by a police dog in a secondhand shop.

Redemption and sentence reduction slots were all priced, and whether or not one performed well in the labor camp was entirely decided by the prison guards and priests.

The two parties often collude to make money together, and the guarantor is often fabricated out of thin air.

Although no one dares to play the role of a prisoner on paper, they dare to switch the prince with a cat.

In this era, it was commonplace for one or two prisoners to die in jail, so they would simply switch the names of the living and the dead.

Then, a fake identity is arranged in prison, and a serious criminal or even a death row inmate is simply laundered. Some people even transform into prison guards and local officials.

Other practices included extortion, selling prisoners' corpses to medical schools, and even renting prisoners to gangs for shootouts (a real historical case in the Lombardy region).

But why would some playwrights mention these things?

This brings us to the rich lives of Austrian Imperial playwrights. Some of them may have heard about it from others in bars, others from homeless people on the street after getting drunk, or still others may have experienced it firsthand.

In that particular era, quite a few famous figures from the Austrian Empire had been imprisoned.

Most of the clergy sent to prisons chose to go along with the corrupt practices, since there was real money to be made, whereas the church and God were much stingier in comparison.

Of course, many honest people did report it, but the Austrian Empire's judicial and oversight bodies often ignored it due to arrogance and their own stereotypes.

In fact, the various oversight agencies of the Austrian Empire were hesitant to intervene due to the sheer size of the Austrian police system, and most people viewed prisoners as a bunch of hopeless scum whose lives were of no concern.

If a playwright hadn't exposed the story of the "Prince Replaced by a Civet Cat," no one would have paid any attention to it.

Even so, many people chose to turn a blind eye until Franz personally intervened and these people began to take action.

Various documents quickly piled up on Franz's desk; there was no doubt that they simply didn't want to investigate before.

The root cause of the prison system's corruption lies in the Austrian Empire's police system, as stated in a line from an operetta.

"The person who invented the Austrian Imperial Police system was a genius; Austrian police could actually commit robbery with a license."

The term "licensed robbery" is not an exaggeration. At this point, Austrian police could arrest people simply because they looked like rebels.

Austrian police wield terrifying power; they can arbitrarily question and interrogate passersby unless the person is a nobleman or an official.

Of course, the Austrian police aren't crazy; they usually only target those who are wealthy and have little power to resist.

For example, how serious was the situation for businessmen and students from other places at that time?

Many companies categorize bribes to police officers as travel expenses or operating costs.

(End of this chapter)