Crime
Vagrancy, begging, and prostitution were all widely tolerated until the turn of the nineteenth century in Quebec. But in the context of urbanization, industrialization, and rising social inequality, such activities were increasingly seen as deviant and a threat to public order. As a result those living on the margins of society—including vagrants, beggars, and prostitutes—faced increased criminalization starting in the early nineteenth century.
The drive to suppress petty crime led to the expansion and strengthening of institutions of social regulation like police forces, criminal courts, and detention facilities. Various groups of “reformers” started expressing concern over a system where so many women, children, seniors, and members of other marginalized groups were brought before the courts and sent behind bars.
Law and Order
The Police as a Tool of Repression and Protection
After the turn of the nineteenth century, the police became an increasingly prominent feature on Quebec’s urban landscape. Police forces under
municipal control were first established in 1842 and police stations soon opened throughout the largest cities—and especially in poor neighbourhoods like Saint-Roch in Quebec City and Sainte-Marie in Montreal.
In addition to dealing with violence and property crime, police officers devoted much of their time to cracking down on perceived threats to public order in poorer areas. A lack of proper care facilities meant that police stations often served as temporary shelters for the homeless, prostitutes, the intoxicated, and other disadvantaged groups.
“Hotbeds” of Crime
Significant investments in the courts, the police, and jails failed to stamp out petty crime that fed on urban poverty. The forces of order had no choice but to tolerate—and sometimes even profit from—certain deviant behaviours in well-defined areas of the city. Blind pigs, gambling houses, brothels, and opium dens were typical of the underground institutions that thrived in the red-light districts of industrial cities. Montreal was home to the most famous such district in Quebec. In Quebec City, petty crime was concentrated in working-class neighbourhoods like Saint-Jean (the site of the city’s nineteenth-century red-light district), Saint-Roch, and Champlain.
At times, these “hotbeds” of crime attracted a great degree of public attention. This was especially true during the two world wars, when authorities were concerned about the impact of prostitution on the morale and physical health of the troops. The resulting morality and anti-venereal campaigns mainly targeted sex workers. For instance, in 1953, the Caron Inquiry use a map created by the YMCA, in 1943. It mapped out the brothels and rooming houses suspected of driving the spread of venereal disease in Montreal, clearly highlighting the city’s red-light district. In Quebec City, military authorities singled out the Palais neighbourhood, near the train station.
The Recorder’s Court
People arrested by the police usually appeared before the Recorder’s Court. These municipal institutions, which operated in Montreal and Quebec City from the 1850s until the early 1950s, heard most criminal cases in both cities. They shared this responsibility with the Police Court and later the Court of Sessions of the Peace. Day in and day out, the recorders (judges) dealt with various public order offences.
People in desperate situations, including women facing violence from men, regularly sought the court’s protection. These appeals often fell on deaf ears, as illustrated by this 1873 story on Ann Morrissey, published in the Daily Witness.
Summary Justice
The Recorder’s Court was not a place for reflecting on the root causes of urban poverty and violence. A defendant’s fate was normally decided within a few minutes. In most cases, the evidence presented was limited to the arresting officer’s testimony. The verdict and (if the defendant was found guilty) sentencing quickly followed. This 1879 summary of the Court’s decisions illustrates how most people convicted of public order offences were sentenced to a few weeks in jail. The recorders were less concerned with addressing the real causes of activities such as prostitution than with ensuring their city projected an image of bourgeois respectability.
Jails
Local Jails
During the nineteenth century, fines were the most common tool for regulating crime. However, courts were increasingly turning to imprisonment, which had all but entirely replaced traditional corporal punishment. New jails, designed according to the latest reform ideas, were built in Montreal and Quebec City. Montreal’s jail opened in 1811. Due to a lack of space, it was soon replaced by the Pied-du-Courant Prison (1836–1913), which was then replaced by the Bordeaux Prison (1913-). From 1812 to 1867, Quebec City’s jail operated on Saint-Stanislas Street, taking in a total of more than 60,000 inmates. For the most part, these individuals were held for minor offences like vagrancy, drunkenness, and disturbing the peace. They were men and women—and sometimes children—drawn from the poorest segments of urban society. Among the 150 or so convicts held at the jail who had been sentenced to death, about fifteen were hanged outside the building’s main door. In Trois-Rivières, a local jail operated from 1820 to 1986. Compared to its counterparts in Montreal and Quebec, it had relatively few inmates. Up until the 1920s, between 200 and 300 prisoners passed through its doors every year.
Almost as soon as it opened, Quebec City’s jail began facing criticism for overcrowding, unhealthy conditions, and the perceived idleness of its inmates. A new facility, which was more spacious and featured a more “modern” design, opened on the Plains of Abraham in 1867. The move coincided with a drop in the inmate population, due to decreased activity at the Port of Quebec. The situation was very different in Montreal, where even the vast Bordeaux Prison quickly filled up… and has been the subject of ongoing criticism ever since.
Discipline and Forced Labour
Reformers saw crime as the result of poor moral and social discipline. They therefore believed that prison should reform criminals through strict discipline and, for many, forced labour. This would discourage convicts from reoffending. Violent punishments like whipping were replaced by other means of control, such as physical restraint and the removal of privileges. However, overcrowding and a lack of funding made it impossible to fully implement these disciplinary measures. Many criticized the monotony of life behind bars and the prisoners’ inactivity.
A Revolving Door?
The failings of the social welfare system meant that jails were key institutions for responding to urban poverty in Quebec City and Montreal. For example, destitute women—often Irish immigrants—began seeking shelter behind bars in the early nineteenth century. They were forced to do so because local mutual assistance and private charity networks failed to address their needs.
Women Behind Bars
Montreal’s Sainte-Darie Refuge
Managed by the Good Shepherd Sisters of Angers, the Sainte-Darie Refuge served as Montreal’s women’s prison from 1876 to 1964. Catholics and Protestants were housed in separate wings. The nuns were responsible for the Catholic prisoners, and a smaller number of Protestant inmates were supervised by a staff of matrons. Most prisoners were serving sentences for crimes related to sex and morality, such as prostitution, public drunkenness, and vagrancy. Young children often lived with their incarcerated mothers. The facility aimed to foster “moral reform” among inmates. This was especially true of prostitutes who, because of their disturbing sexuality, were seen as the antithesis of the Victorian ideal of femininity and motherhood. However, the frequency with which some individuals were sent back behind bars shows that these “reform” efforts were often little more than wishful thinking.
The Quebec City Women’s Jail
In 1829, a separate building for female inmates opened in Quebec City. However, this first specialized facility was closed in 1867, when the city’s jail moved to the Plains of Abraham. A replacement did not open until 1931, when the Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci Refuge (now Maison Gomin) began serving as the new women’s jail. Also run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, it primarily housed French-Canadian Catholic women from city’s working-class neighbourhoods—especially Saint-Sauveur and Saint-Roch. As was the case in the nineteenth century, most female inmates were convicted of public order offences including vagrancy, disorderly conduct, loitering, and drunkenness. Others were incarcerated for prostitution-related crimes. The jail closed in 1972.
Life in an institution
The daily lives of female inmates were very different from those of their male counterparts. A strict regimen of prayers and work left little time for rest. The women were expected to spend about eight hours a day weaving, knitting, and sewing. Those sentenced to forced labour were assigned laundry and cleaning duties. At noon and in the evening, they had to remain silent as they listened to the nun in charge read aloud from religious texts. Needless to say, these rules may not always have been rigorously followed. For instance, consider this 20 February 1882 article about a riot published in La Patrie.
