The Austrian Empire's police system was already rotten, and its prison system was the worst disaster zone of all.
Franz knew that prisons in the past had been exceptionally dark places. His teacher had once told him about the chaos within Austria's judicial system.
But only now did Franz realize that the law professor had been far too restrained in his account. There were shady dealings in practically every link of the chain.
Paying money could not only get one a better cell and better meals, but also visitation rights and even the right to leave temporarily.
Taking advantage of the civil war in 1848, Franz had carried out a sweeping reform. The practice of serving one's sentence on paper had basically been eradicated in the Austrian Empire.
That was because many of those imprisoned at the time were serious criminals, political prisoners, and even war criminals. Under Franz's temporary decree, anyone who offered such people conveniences was considered an accomplice. Many police families that refused to believe it had been thoroughly wiped out by him.
Only then did that brazen atmosphere come to an abrupt end. Franz also introduced other reforms, such as a classification system and a parole system.
Prisons of that era were also known as criminals' universities. Conditions were limited, and nobody cared, so all sorts of prisoners were often locked up together.
Vagrants and first-time thieves were often held alongside robbers, murderers, and the mentally ill. Someone who had merely been a thief or a hooligan could emerge as a vicious villain capable of every evil.
If a prison held several eloquent political prisoners, then before long every inmate in the entire prison would become a political prisoner.
In My Prisons, Italian patriotic poet and playwright Silvio Pellico recorded how a young first offender was