It is interesting to note the comparatively light sentences political offenders get in France. And then there is an established practice of amnesty. They rarely finish out their terms. Agitation for their release extends from the extreme revolutionary left to the members of the Chamber of Deputies, frequently backed by the liberal press.
Italy also distinguishes between political and common law offenders. The former are entitled to all the privileges of custodia honesta[1] which means they are allowed to wear their own clothes, work or not, as they choose; if they do work, one half their earnings is given to them. Their only penal obligation is silence during work, meals, school and prayers. A friend of Sr. Serrati, the ex-editor of the Italian journal Il Proletario, tells me that Serrati was a political prisoner during the late war; that he was sentenced to three and a half years, but was released at the end of six months, through pressure from the outside. But while there, he was allowed to write an article a day for Avanti, of which paper he was then an editor.
[1] Sigerson, pp. 154-5.
Even before the Franco-Prussian War German principalities recognized political offenders as such. The practice continued after the federation of German states through the Empire and up to the overthrow of Kaiser Wilhelm. Politicals were held in “honorable custody” in fortresses where they were deprived only of their liberty.
For revolutionary activities in Saxony in 1849, Bakunin[2] was arrested, taken to a Cavalry Barracks and later to Koeriigstein Fortress, where politicals were held. Here he was allowed to walk twice daily under guard. He was allowed to receive books, he could converse with his fellow prisoners and could write and receive numerous letters. In a letter to a friend[3] he wrote that he was occupied in the study of mathematics and English, and that he was “enjoying Shakespeare.” And .. : . “they treat me with extraordinary humanness.”
[2] The Life of Michael Bakunin—Eine Biographie von Dr. Max Nettlau. (Privately printed by the author. Fifty copies reproduced by the autocopyist, Longhaus.)
[3] To Adolph R—— (the last name illegible) October 15, 1849.
Another letter to the same friend a month later said he was writing a defense of his political views in “a comfortable room,” with “cigars and food brought in from a nearby inn.” The death sentence was pronounced against him in 1850 but commuted to imprisonment for life. The same year he was extradited to Austria where the offense was committed, then to Russia and on to Siberia in 1855, whence he escaped in 1860 in an American ship.
In 1869 Bebell[1] received a sentence of three weeks in Leipzig (contrast with Alice Paul’s seven months’ sentence) “for the propagation of ideas dangerous to the state.” Later for high treason based upon Social-Democratic agitation he was sentenced to two years in a fortress. For lèse majesté he served nine months in Hubertusburg—a fortress prison (in 1871). Here politicals were allowed to pay for the cleaning of their cells, to receive food from a nearby inn, and were allowed to eat together in the corridors. They were only locked in for part of the time, and the rest of the time were allowed to walk in the garden. They were permitted lights until ten at night; books; and could receive and answer mail every day. Bebel received permission to share cell quarters with the elder Lielr knecht (Wilhelm), then serving time for his internationalism. He says that political prisoners were often allowed a six weeks’ leave of absence between sentences; when finishing one and beginning a second.
[1] My Life, August Bebel.