Montreuil Prison Study
Note: Based on a kink!meme prompt.
"Monsieur le Maire, I must once again ask that-" Javert started to say.
Valjean just shook his head tiredly at him and watched as Javert automatically broke off. "I am sorry, Javert, but I simply cannot accommodate you."
"I know that that man tried to pick your pocket. I have witnesses!" Javert exclaimed.
"And you have not arrested him," Valjean noted.
Javert scowled. "I would have but it is the word of children against the word of yourself. There is no point in even arresting him because the law dictates that your word be taken over theirs."
"Then that is settled," Valjean told him.
"It is not settled," Javert insisted. "I know that that man tried to steal from you and I know that you turned around and gave him your purse in turn."
"I have already stated that that did not happen," Valjean said calmly. "Would you call me a liar, Javert?"
Javert took a deep breath. "I would never, Monsieur." He was accusing him of lying whether or not he said those words but Javert's thoughts often seemed to move in directions that Valjean could not follow. "Though you are calling those children liars by contradicting them."
Valjean shook his head again. "I am doing no such thing. I am merely explaining that they must have made a mistake. They were farther away and had not been watching us when that man approached me and I gave him my purse." And that whole attempted pick pocketing had happened between those two events, of course, but at this point in his life lying to the police really didn't bother him.
Javert looked very much like he wanted to say something but was restraining himself. It actually looked like he wanted to say something so badly that it hurt him to hold back.
"Speak freely, Inspector," Valjean invited, amused.
Javert hesitated for another moment before it all came spilling out. "You always do this, Monsieur. Every time there is a crime you plead for mercy and reduce sentences if you do not outright snatch violent prostitutes from the jaws of justice!"
Nothing good would come of speaking of Fantine.
"It does not happen every time," Valjean argued. "Only when there is a compelling case to be made for allowing a little mercy to temper the harsh sword of justice."
"It was an affront to decency and the very governmental institution that you represent when you let that prostitute spit on you with no recourse but now you must shield thieves who would dare snatch a purse from your own person?" Javert demanded.
"I have told you that that is not what has happened," Valjean said again.
"And think of the future!" Javert cried out. "You are so concerned with your little acts of charity that you do not consider the broader implications. What will the more immoral among us do once they realize that they do not have to be particularly talented to get caught attempting to steal Monsieur le Maire's purse and they will just have it given to them! And you will deny it so that I cannot even use the law to deter them!"
"You are exaggerating, Javert," Valjean said, resisting the childish impulse to roll his eyes at the inspector's histrionics.
"I am not," Javert claimed. "You would do away with the police altogether if you could and just coddle ever criminal you came across in a lawless dystopia."
No, he was definitely not exaggerating.
"I just do not like to see men sent to prison," Valjean said quietly. "I especially do not like to see women or children sent there but a man sent to prison is more likely to condemn others." It was certainly true with him though that was not always the case, as demonstrated by Fantine and the child Javert still did not believe existed.
"No one likes to send men to prison," Javert replied. Valjean's skepticism must have shown on his face for he went on. "I will admit that I am glad to see criminals behind bars but I am not pleased that they are criminals in the first place. I assure you that if people like me were not necessary to enforce laws because crime did not exist then no one would be happier than I to need to find a new line of work at my age."
"You speak of trying to reduce crime and yet you would take these inoffensive if desperate men and turn them into animals in prisons," Valjean accused.
Javert gave him that pitying look then that he sometimes brought out whenever he felt that Valjean's hard-earned experience was mere naivety because what did "Monsieur Madeleine" know of any of the darker sides of life? Valjean rather detested that look.
"Respectfully, Monsieur le Maire, I was a guard stationed at Toulon for several years. You say that the men who emerge from Toulon are beasts and I will grant you that. I will, however, correct you in that they did not become beasts in prison, they were always such," Javert said politely, not a drop of the condescension Valjean knew was there in his voice.
"Perhaps I have never had the opportunity to see the inside of a prison myself," Valjean said slowly. And perhaps he had had the opportunity to spend nineteen years of his life there, enough time that even if he had been able to find his sister and her children, even if they were all still alive, even the youngest would have been grown and would not have needed him anymore. "Still, I have seen many men leave Toulon and you cannot possibly expect me to believe that they are the same as when they enter. It is not just the superficial things like the shorn head or the many scars. There is a fundamental change that allows you to always be able to tell a man who has been to prison from one who has not, even if the man who has not is a criminal himself and merely fortunate enough not to have been arrested."
Javert nodded. "I can concede that."
Valjean frowned. "Agreeing with me so soon, Inspector?"
"Hardly."
Valjean looked pointedly at him.
"Prison does enact changes but I must insist that they are all superficial changes," Javert elaborated.
"Inspector, once a man is released from prison there is a-a darkness inside of them, a wariness, a hatred of even the innocent in as much as these men can believe that there is such a thing," Valjean said, hoping his voice sounded steadier to Javert's ears than it did to his own. "Things that were not present before."
There was that look again and it was all the more frustrating because Valjean, like Javert, was not speaking in the abstract but from personal experiences. Since Valjean had actually been one of those miserable and bitter parolees, he would argue that he had a better idea of what it was like than Javert did. He knew for a fact that prison had changed him, changed him so much that he could barely even recall whatever he had been before. He could win the argument, perhaps, if Javert did not feel that he was merely making excuses but after that things would go…badly. As in, being immediately rearrested and sent back to Toulon for breaking his ban badly.
"Things that were not readily apparent, perhaps," Javert corrected. "Monsieur le Maire, in some men there is just an inherent flaw, a weakness of character that lends itself to crime. Perhaps in the right circumstances that flaw never manifests itself but it is always there and the minute that they are desperate or greedy or perhaps even just angry that flaw is exposed for the world to see in the form of a crime. They may try to hide it away or pretend that it is not true, that it is the circumstance or that one act does not define them but it is simply not true. They were always beasts and it just takes a little time in Toulon for them to give up and admit it."
Giving up and admitting it. Valjean remembered it well. It had been more like giving up and just letting the change happen since, despite his best efforts, he couldn't seem to stop it. But that had not been his true self and he had not always been like that. He was not like that now, though perhaps closer to it than he had once been. That had been what Toulon had done to him. It was what Toulon did to everyone.
"If you were right," Valjean said, once he'd managed to compose himself, "then why would you want them to stop 'pretending' not to be beasts? Wouldn't it be better for society if they did cling to some pretence of humanity for less problems in prison and when they are released?"
Javert shrugged. "It would make no difference. Prison is not designed to make men face themselves, after all. It is just a common side effect from realizing that there is no longer anyone to fool."
It was not true. Valjean knew it was not true. He could not say it, though, and even if he had he may not be believed. Who listened to the word of a thief? Certainly not Javert.
But how to convince Javert that he had his cause and effect backwards?
"I say to you that if you put anyone in Toulon, anyone at all, then they would resemble the meanest of convicts after enough time has passed," Valjean declared boldly. "Perhaps the more virtuous or stronger among them would take longer to succumb but it would happen."
"If a citizen who had committed no crime did reveal themselves to be nothing but a beast after all then it was just a matter of a hitherto undiscovered weakness in their nature," Javert said simply.
How could he make him see, this blind man who refused even acknowledge his own failing?
"I would almost like to see how you would make out in such a place," he murmured absently, not truly meaning it of course. He would not wish Toulon on anyone. It might be the only thing that would make his Inspector see, however.
Javert looked impassively at him. "I would like to believe that such a thing is not in my nature. Given certain elements, I am forced to conclude that it may be and I may be unpleasantly surprised. It would prove nothing more than what I have said and show just how far a man can delude himself."
Valjean rather thought they were seeing a nice example of that already.
"Very well then," he said slowly as a thought occurred to him. "I propose a test."
"A test?" Javert looked intrigued despite himself.
"I would not subject anyone to Toulon if I could help it," Valjean said emphatically. "But what if we do set up a scenario where some people are prisoners and others are guards. It would not be for very long, perhaps two weeks, but during that time they would live as if they were at a prison. Oh, it would not be nearly as harsh as an actual prison but they would be isolated and not have the chance to return to their lives at the end of the day and ruin the illusion."
"What would be the point of that?" Javert wondered.
"The point is that you would find all of the participants," Valjean told him. "Men of good, honest character that you can be certain are not secretly beasts."
"I can never be certain of anyone," Javert argued. "But I do take your point. As certain as I can be of anyone, I will be certain of these men. They would have to be poor, I think, or they would never agree to participate no matter how overly generously I'm sure you would pay them."
"What do you believe will happen?" Valjean inquired.
Javert frowned. "I do not like to speculate."
"If we are going to do a test then we have to know what we are expecting the results to be," Valjean argued. "I believe that there will be a marked change in these men, at least the prisoners and possibly the guards as well, though the change will not be as severe as in one who has really been to Toulon for a prison term of far longer than two weeks."
If the prisoners changed then perhaps the guards did, too. He really did not know, having never had the opportunity to see a guard outside of their native environment. They were often nervous at first, he recalled, but grew more confident. Gaining confidence hardly counted as a true change, however. There was Javert, who was far different now than he was back in Toulon. But Valjean had only known Javert during and after Toulon and never before so that did not quite count. Besides, he was not entirely certain that it was Javert himself who had changed and not Javert's natural tendency to treat a hated convict far different from a respected superior.
Javert nodded curtly. "Very well. I believe that the guards will guard the prisoners and the prisoners will patiently wait out their two week sentence."
Valjean stared incredulously at him.
"It is only two weeks and they know that," Javert pointed out. "Even the most reckless and eager to run prisoners did not attempt to flee in their first two weeks. And these will be good men. Why would you expect anything different?"
"We shall see," Valjean said, electing not to repeat himself.
"We shall," Javert agreed. "I believe that I would like to be a part of this experiment."
Valjean blinked at him. "Of course you were going to be a part of this experiment. This experiment is for the purpose of proving one of the two of us wrong. We both have to be involved."
Javert shook his head. "I do not mean as merely an observer, as I assume that you will be doing. I wish to be actually involved, to better understand. If I am correct and nothing happens then I can be secure in my inherent goodness and separation from the beasts of Toulon."
"And if you are not?" Valjean asked pointedly.
"Then experiencing it for myself will allow me a better understanding of this…phenomenon," Javert replied calmly.
"Are you quite certain of this?" Valjean inquired. "I would not want you to-"
"Pardon, Monsieur, but are you suggesting that the scum of the Earth can withstand years, a lifetime even, of the harshest treatment we know how to give and the poor that I might find can withstand your little test but that I, an Inspector with the French Police, am not capable of such a thing?" Javert demanded, a challenging look in his eye.
Valjean swallowed his objection. "Of course not. I only aim to be certain that this is what you desire because it will be no good if you or any of the others desire to leave before the two weeks is up."
"I will not," Javert said with such unflappable certainty that Valjean did not dare doubt him. "Still, it is a good point to consider. It would be unlawful to demand that any man stay if he decides to withdraw from our little test and if this happens it may prevent us from being able to do it. Too few guards for the prisoners would be the worst case though too few prisoners and we may not be able to be sure that the reaction is the reaction that most would have instead of an unusual reaction we have managed to capture."
Valjean nodded his agreement. "What do you suggest?"
"We should have people who are not part of the test initially but who we can have come into the test if someone who is participating chooses to leave," Javert responded.
"We would need the same extra number of people as guards and as prisoners," Valjean mused.
"Why would we need that?" Javert asked. "If no one leaves then the extra people are not needed and so they do not need to be sorted. If we have five extra prisoners and five extra guards and six prisoners leave then we will need to use one of the guards so there is no need to sort them. I just do not see the point."
"It will make replacing them faster," Valjean insisted. "I do hope that we do not have six prisoners or six guards withdraw from this but in that case, you are right that we shall simply have to take one of the extra people who was assigned to the opposite role. It is a small matter."
"It is unnecessary," Javert protested.
"It is harmless," Valjean returned.
Javert could not argue with that though it seemed like he very much wished to.
"If you will be one of the guards then we will need to have one more person found who will be a prisoner," Valjean said slowly.
Javert held up a hand. "I do not intend to be a guard."
Valjean drew back. "You do not?"
Javert shook his head. "What would be the point of that? I have been a prison guard for years. I understand everything there is to know about being a guard and there is nothing that this little test of yours can teach me in that respect. I might be at a disadvantage, even, since the ways I know to control prisoners would undoubtedly be too harsh for your tastes and, as you said, we do not want to actually impose Toulon on these innocent men."
"But…why a prisoner?" Valjean could not understand it. Javert knew what it was like to be a prisoner as well as any who had not actually been in chains possibly could. Why would he willing inflict that upon himself? Did he have that much faith in Madeleine's mercy? Was he really so determined to prove a point?
"This whole thing is because you want me to believe that prison changes a man. What better way to know such a thing than to experience it yourself? I might never be entirely sure if the seemingly good men I find are really good and have changed or were always secretly beasts waiting to be discovered and chained. If nothing happens then it will be an easy matter to prove that I am right but if they do behave as animals do…Well, I would not hand you your victory so easily," Javert explained. "I will be able to watch the prisoners much closer if I am consigned to stay there with them as one of their fellows and I may yet learn something that I was not able to see as a guard. Prisoners are always different with guards than with each other. I am also reasonably sure that if I begin to act like a beast I will be able to tell whether I have changed or my true nature is being dragged into the light."
Dragged into the darkness would be more accurate.
"You take a great risk considering the possibility that you will find that you are right but that you were always one of those, how did you put it, 'beasts waiting to be discovered and chained'," Valjean pointed out.
Javert met his gaze levelly. "I have never run from the truth. If it turns out that I am not a good man then I am at least a man good enough to accept the punishment for my own failings."
He could say that now. He even seemed to mean it. Valjean wondered just how long he could possibly mean it in Toulon. It was good that neither of them would ever find out, he did not truly want to find out. And yet he still wondered.
Javert was expected to show up at the building Madeleine had designated the prison at precisely noon but there was time until then. He had not been permitted to see the 'prison' though he was the only one of them who had actually been to a prison. Madeleine had insisted that he not see where he was to be spending the next two weeks because he thought seeing it before it would be put to use would make it seem less real. He said that it was enough that Javert knew far more about the test than anybody else playing as a guard or a prisoner would be.
This prison was always going to lack verisimilitude but Javert had insisted that Madeleine at least consult with Moreau, who had served as a prison guard himself at Château d'If. Madeleine had agreed though he seemed to be humoring him. It needed to be done, however. This false prison had to have some things in common with real prisons if this was going to serve any purpose whatsoever.
He was reading over his list of instructions for the two weeks that he would be gone. He knew, intellectually, that the town would not fall apart without him. It had gone on before he had arrived and it would make do once he was reassigned or no longer part of the force. And though Madeleine would be greatly distracted for the next two weeks monitoring what was going on in their test, he would still be available to deal with any problems that came up. Still, he was uneasy at being away from his post for so long and was greatly comforted at at least being able to leave instructions for his men.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang and his door flew open.
He rose, warily, trying to understand what was going on. Was he under attack? In broad daylight and he an Inspector of police! Such things did not happen. And yet…clearly something was occurring and he could think of nothing more plausible.
His confusion did not abate when his fellow officers stormed into the room.
"What are you-" he started to say before Durand grabbed him by the wrists and chained his hands. "What is the meaning of this?"
Moreau threw him a contemptuous look. "We're arresting you."
"This is an outrage!" Javert said angrily.
The men did not reply, just pushed him forward roughly and he stumbled a few steps.
"I haven't done anything wrong!" Javert insisted, feeling an uncomfortable familiarity settle over him. He had never been the man in chains but he could not deny that had seen this particular scene play out before regardless. And what was it that they always did? They denied the obvious truth of their guilt. Javert could not think of anyone he had ever arrested who did not end up in prison.
Was this what was in store for him? He did not understand it. He was always so careful – too careful, some said – to not break a law, not even the little ones that were not really enforced. How had this happened? How had he been so blindsided. Just yesterday these men had been treating him as one of their own and he had not had an inkling that anything was wrong. How could it have come to this?
As he was led outside and came face-to-face with the surprisingly burning eyes of his neighbors, a wild hope came to him. Perhaps this was not real. Perhaps it was just part of the very test that was to occur today. After all, what sort of prison term began with the prisoners casually making their way to their prison? No, it was always an arrest. But to use real officers…would Madeleine really do such a thing?
He did not know. He could not believe so.
And those eyes. They were cruel eyes, he decided. They came paired with cruel voices. They did not believe that this could be anything but the truth. They did not sound suitably surprised.
"I always knew that there was something off about that one."
"Walks around like he's so much better than the rest of us and see where that landed him!"
"What do you think they do to former inspectors in prison?"
"Is it any wonder? You could tell he was a criminal, alright, just looking at him."
The last one was the worst. He reminded himself, as he always did, that it did not matter. He may look like a criminal but he was not one. That thought did not bring as much comfort as it usually did.
It had taken a little over a week for Valjean to arrange for a space large enough to use as a prison. They did not need much, merely three small cells that could not easily be escaped from as well as an area for the prisoners to go when they were not in their cells. That would serve all of their non-cell purposes nicely. It was not overly large because the prisoners were never given the luxury of a lot of space but it was not too small to be useful for whatever purposes the guards would have. And it would be the guards making most of the decisions, with him merely stepping in if things went too far.
In that time, Javert managed to thoroughly investigate twenty-three men that had agreed to take part in their test though six of them would only be used if need be. Valjean did not know how many men Javert had turned down nor how he managed to find so many so quickly but Javert was a professional and the ways of the law were still somewhat mysterious to him after all this time. He may have been a prisoner and he may be mayor now but that still only put him at the peripheral of it. And it would not surprise him in the least if Javert had already had an eye on these men. He worked so hard to try and know everything there was to know about the town and that meant knowing its inhabitants, the law-abiding and the criminal classes.
He had decided to inform guards that they would be reporting in at seven and the prisoners that they would be reporting in at noon. He had no particular reason for choosing the guards to be guards and the prisoners to be prisoners (with the obvious exception of Javert) and had just had every other person on the list Javert had given him be the prisoners.
Of course prisoners could not be allowed to report for their imprisonment! That did not set the right mindset. He remembered how it was clearly though other, pleasanter memories had long since faded. Toulon had never been a place for taking pain away.
It was late at night, everyone was sleeping or getting ready to. But when they heard the commotion with the broken window and the baker giving chase, they had come out to watch. He could still see them, faces that warred between scandalized excitement and harsh condemnation, bodies still dressed for bed. He had been tackled to the ground by the baker and sat on to prevent him from escaping. After a few years in Toulon he would have fled anyway but it had seemed to him then that he was caught and he was identified and it had not occurred to him to try and flee further. And his arm was bleeding everywhere, making it all too easy to have found him even if he had fled once again.
The baker had called for the police who arrived so quickly they must have heard the commotion and been making their way towards it anyway. His sister had not been there. She had not seen. That was good, he supposed, but it also meant that he had not gotten to see her again before he was dragged off to face his future in chains. He could not remember the last time he had seen her.
These 'prisoners' would not have to face being torn from everything they ever knew and loved with no way to return to that. They would not have to face being withheld from society for so long that they forgot how to behave in it. They would not realize that it did not matter that they had forgotten society because society had forgotten them, too, and would not welcome them back. They would not have one mistake haunt them for the rest of their lives. They would not have to spend years in the worst kind of hell that man could dream up. They wouldn't even be forced to stay the entire two weeks if they chose not to.
They could, however, bear all of the scorn from their neighbors as they were dragged away in chains by unsympathetic tools of the law and shoved into a cell with other men in the same sorry situation.
Javert's colleagues were all very helpful. They did not understand exactly what it was that he was trying to do but if their mayor had concocted the scheme and Javert had agreed to do it then that was enough for them. They carried out their arrests exactly as they would anyone else and made sure that there were plenty of witnesses. Well, almost exactly. He would not have his pretend prisoners beaten for agreeing to help them. Even the money he was paying them (too much, insisted Javert, who had only accepted his share because he was to be like all the rest for this test and that included being paid) would not make it acceptable to beat them.
And he was not a cruel man, not anymore. After his meeting with the guards he had gone around to all of the neighborhoods where the men were arrested from and explained what had happened to the most curious of souls. He did not have the time to tell everyone personally but the ones who appeared most interested in his presence were also the ones most liable to spread the story that he told.
The woman that he was currently with was a Madame Simon, a widow with two half-grown children. He was conscious, as ever, of the precarious position widows with children occupied in society but Madame Simon appeared to be doing well enough. It helped that her children were old enough to work a little themselves.
"It is good, as always, to see you Monsieur le Maire," Madame Simon told him. "But I do hope you know that I will not be able to think about anything else but Inspector Javert's recent arrest. I do hope you have come to explain what happened there."
Valjean smiled gently at her. "I have indeed."
Madame Simon leaned forward eagerly. "Was he abusing his position? Is this about that wh-Fantine? Was he stealing government money?"
"No, no, nothing of the sort," Valjean assured her. "Though I do hope that you will find this story at least a little interesting."
"Oh?" She could barely contain her excitement and one of her feet began to bounce.
"The Inspector and a few others are helping me with an important project," Valjean informed her.
"They're helping you by getting arrested?" Madame Simon asked, surprised.
"They were not really arrested."
Madame Simon's eyebrows shot up. "It certainly looked like it was a real arrest. I've seen my fair share of these things, I'll have you know."
"I do not doubt it," Valjean said smoothly. "It was supposed to appear real so that the people helping would feel it as a real arrest."
"What was the real purpose then?" Madame Simon asked, intrigued.
"We are trying to find out what happens when honest men are imprisoned," Valjean replied. "We want to see if they behave differently than criminals do."
"Y-you're going to lock honest men up?" Madame Simon couldn't believe it.
"Not in any sort of prison, just a pretend jail. I do believe that there are merits to discovering what happens to honest men who are locked up, so yes," Valjean confirmed. "They volunteered and may leave whenever they wish to. They will be well-paid and this only lasts for two weeks."
"I'm sure it will be nothing like what happens to the scoundrels who go out breaking laws and terrorizing society," Madame Simon said, scowling briefly at the thought of them.
Valjean was years past the point of being offended. "We will soon see whether that is the case."
"You really think that this will be useful?" Madame Simon asked doubtfully.
Valjean nodded. "There are circumstances where honest men are locked up, however rarely the case may be, and we should know what we can expect to happen to them. They may be kidnapped, for example, or if they are soldiers they could be captured by the enemy."
"That is true," Madame Simon agreed. ""I cannot begin to imagine what our soldiers suffered under those barbarians."
Valjean bowed his head. "As you say, Madame. If you have no further questions then I must go. I need to tell everyone on this street what really happened this morning."
"Oh, I am sure that you are very busy," Madame Simon said quickly, just as he had hoped that she would. Some women lived for gossip and this was clearly one of them. "I will take it upon myself to let everybody in the area know."
Valjean smiled at her. "That is very generous of you, Madame. If you are sure it will not inconvenience you unduly."
"I am positive," Madame Simon insisted, smiling back at him.
Valjean quickly took his lave and headed back to the 'prison' to observe the processing of the 'prisoners.' He had given very specific instructions based on a much-modified version of what was done at Toulon when convicts first arrived.
At his meeting with the guards, he had helped them come up with a list of rules the prisoners had to follow. He would allow the guards to do as they liked as long as they did not physically punish the prisoners or allow anything sexual to occur.
The guards all seemed to think that he was being ridiculous in even believing he needed to tell them any of that. They did not believe that they would try to have sex with the prisoners or that the prisoners would try to have sex with each other. They did not believe that they would attack their fellow honest men who were posing as prisoners. Perhaps they were right.
He would like to believe that they were right but he had spent too many years at the mercy of those who abused the absolute power they had over him and his fellows. He would take no chances with these innocents he had placed in this situation and so he had insisted. The guards agreed to abide by this though they were just humoring him. It did not matter, however, so long as they behaved in a more civilized manner.