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This paper examines how the suicide of a teenager illuminated a longstanding ideological divide in fin-de-siècle France. Five days after his arrival at the Maison Paternelle, an internationally renowned, privately-operated establishment for bourgeois boys, Gaston Contard committed suicide. The suicide was quickly sensationalized in the press and resulted in a wide-ranging investigation by public prosecutors who charged the institution's director with illegal imprisonment. Although acquitted, this was a pyrrhic victory as the event marked a critical turning point in the relationship between private power, state control and paternal authority as it pertained to the incarceration and socialization of troubled youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the views of Edouard Teisseire, an attorney from Toulouse, France, on the French policy of transporting convicts to penal colonies in Guyana or New Caledonia, during the 19th century. How Teissere's colleague, Henri Joly perceived the convicts sentenced to Guyana; Reason behind the expulsion of criminals from France; Situation which arose due to the disappearance of corporal punishment and the death penalty.