The General Rules and Regulations of the Bellechasse Facilities (Allgemeines Regelement der Anstalten von Bellechasse) is an official document that provides information on how the correctional facility was organised. As such, it also reflects the general attitude of the authorities in Fribourg and the directors of the facility in their correctional policies. The source provides insight into the objectives pursued and practices employed at the facility.

Source content

The document contains rules and regulations concerning the staff (hiring conditions, responsibilities, vacations, promotion, etc.), inmates and detainees (classification within various categories, rights and duties, work, disciplinary measures and sanctions, etc.), as well as general house rules (conditions for admission and release, meals, dress code, visiting rules, etc.).

 

Use of sources

The Rules and Regulations of the Bellechasse Facilities were issued in 1944. Together with other records on the Bellechasse Facilities preserved in the State Archives of the Canton of Fribourg they provides insight into both the overall socio-historical context of the time and the history of the facility itself. By comparing this document with the rules and regulations in force at other periods, it is possible to reconstruct the evolution of attitudes towards the use of correctional measures and the ways they came to expression in the formulation of institutional rules. In order to get a clearer idea of discrepancies that arose between the prescribed procedures as described on paper and the practical realities of daily life in the facility, this source must be correlated with other official documents (e.g., annual reports, reports by the facilities’ administrative committee, records of debates in the Cantonal Parliament of Fribourg, etc.), individual case files of detainees (esp. complaints filed), newspaper and magazine articles, reports by former detainees, as well as the findings of the investigative committee that was charged with an investigation of the facility director in 1950/1951.

 

Secondary literature

The history of the Bellechasse correctional facilities, outlining the main stages in their evolution, can be found in two collections of articles published in commemoration of the 50th and 100th anniversaries, respectively, of the establishment of those facilities. Certain aspects of actual conditions at the facilities are also described in external reports and academic studies  (Bernoulli 1980, Currat 2007, Rossier 2010, Bienz 2015).

 

V. Bignasca/Translation

 

Source

Canton de Fribourg: Bulletin officiel des lois, décrets, arrêtés et autres actes publics du Grand Conseil et du Conseil d’État du canton de Fribourg, année 1943, vol. 112, Fribourg, Imprimerie St. Paul, 1944, pp. 66-81.

Signature: Staatsarchiv Freiburg (StAF/AEF): Bestand Bellechasse, AEF SL 2 c1.

 

Legislative bulletins may be freely consulted by interested members of the public at the Cantonal and University Library of the Canton of Fribourg and the State Archives of the Canton of Fribourg.