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La Force Prison
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Force Prison was a French prison located in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, what is now the 4th arrondissement of Paris.
Originally the private residence of the Duke of la Force, the structure was converted into a prison in 1780.
A new prison for prostitutes was erected about the same time, and was called La Petite Force. In 1830 the two prisons were united, and put under one management, and the whole prison is given up to males committed for trial. The prisoners are divided into separate classes; the old offenders into one ward, the young and comparatively innocent into another.
The prisoners sleep in large and well ventilated chambers, and the boys have each a small apartment which contains a single bed. The prisoners have the privilege of working if they wish, but they are not obliged to do so, inasmuch as they are not yet convicted of crime.
There is a department for the sick, a bathing-room, a parlor, and an advocate's room, where the prisoners can hold conversations with their legal defenders. The number of prisoners is very great : ten thousand being under the annual average confined in the prisons.
Attacked by mobs during the French Revolution, the Princesse de Lamballe was allegedly gang raped and lynched in the prison's courtyard. The prison was demolished in the latter part of the 19th Century.
Other detainees included: