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The efforts of the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer currently concern four fields:
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Tribunaux et parquets d'Algérie - Cour d'appel d'Oran (1955-1965) [Tribunals and Public Prosecutor's Departments in Algeria - Court of Appeal in Oran (1955-1965)]
Unique collection from the competence of the Court of Appeal in Oran (created in 1955). This collection has 18 files of civil and criminal cases judged in Algeria in 1961-1962, but which have been the subject of appeals. Consequently these are files after their examination by the Appeal Court in 1964-1965, after independence in Algeria. The Court rejected them all apart from a case declared unacceptable.
Tribunaux et parquets d'Algérie - Tribunal pour enfants de Bougie (1955-1962) [Tribunals and Public Prosecutor's Departments in Algeria - Children's Tribunal in Bougie (1955-1962)]
The collection from the Children's Tribunal in Bougie (Algeria) is a very small collection with only six boxes (211 T 1-6). These Children's Tribunals appeared in Algeria in 1935. The 1945 regulation was only applied in 1951. These are dossiers of proceedings: minors (from the age of 8) were judged during audiences between 1955 and 1962. It was criminal justice, often linked to the Algerian war and the actions of the Algerian rebellion, but not always. These minors were accused of actions as serious as attempts on the security of the State or assassination attempts. Obviously their sentences were less severe than those of the adults. Consequently this collection throws light on an unexpected aspect of the Algerian conflict. The dossiers are filed in chronological order of the audiences.
Etablissements pénitentiaires d'Algérie - Prisons annexes du département de Constantine (1877-1962) [Penal institutions in Algeria - Additional prisons in the Constantine department (1877-1962)]
The Department of the Penitentiary Administration, created in 1858, was dependent on the Governor General. So the Algerian penitentiary departments were attached to mainland France and the three departments set up in penitentiary districts, which saw themselves allocated a number following those of the districts of mainland France.
In 1948 Algeria had 107 penal institutions apart from prison cells and municipal jails. The penitentiary district of Constantine had seven departmental prisons and thirty-three additional prisons.
Until the Second World War the "departmental prison" meant detention centres, law centres and remand homes. These institutions received the defendants and civil defendants, military to be tried by civil courts, those condemned to correctional imprisonment of less than a year, those transported, young detainees condemned to a sentence of less than six months and those detained for debts to the Government or individuals. The additional prisons, established in the administrative centres of the legal cantons, had a similar function to that of detention centres. Those condemned to prison for less than two months served their sentences there. These were the most numerous penal institutions in the Algerian departments.
The documents kept are prison registers. For each individual listed they provide his civil status, profession, the reason for his incarceration, the description of the clothing worn when first incarcerated, general physical characteristics, anthropometric information, sometimes extremely detailed, as well as the action taken after imprisonment. Within the Constantine department only the prison registers of one departmental prison (Constantine) and four additional prisons were repatriated in 1962. It is the prison registers of these 4 additional prisons which are described in this inventory.
Communes mixtes d'Algérie - Commune mixte des Maâdid puis sous-préfecture de Bordj Bou Arreridj (1861-1960) [Mixed communes in Algeria - Mixed commune of Maadid, then the sub-prefecture of Bordj Bou Arreridj (1861-1960)]
The documents which are the subject of this directory make up the collection produced by the mixed commune of Maadid throughout its entire existence (1890-1956), but some remains of the collection from the sub-prefecture of Bordj-Bou-Arreridj, the administration which succeeded it from June 1956, are also to be found. Until the 1871 insurrection Bordj Bou Arreridj was only an Arab office before becoming, in turn, a civil commissariat and then a mixed commune which took the name of Maadid in 1890. As part of a pentagon made up of the localities of Sétif, La Fayette, Bordj Bou Arreridj, Mansourah and M'Sila, the territory of this mixed commune is not made up of a single tenant because the "douars" of Ain-Turck and Gherazla and the colonisation centres of Davout and Macdonald are separated from the rest of the commune by the fully functional commune of Ain-Tagrout. Further to the North are the mixed communes of Bibans and Guergour which form the boundaries of the commune. Finally the mountainous massif of Djebel Maadid, belonging to the Hodna mountain chain, surrounds Maadid to the South.
The entire collection harbours precious information both on the general administration of the mixed commune and also on the major events which occurred in the country during the entire colonial period. An important section devoted to agriculture gives a detailed description of the various problems encountered by farmers and entrepreneurs. The colonisation centre dossiers make it possible to retrace the progressive arrival of Europeans and their establishment in villages created for their families. Amongst these documents important pieces relating to the application of the 1863 senatus consultum and the communal sequestration ordered in 1871 are to be found. The Algerian war and the riots in May 1945 which preceded it are finally well represented: numerous reports from the gendarmerie companies or the Special Branch National Police make it possible to establish what took place in this territory chronologically. Certain pieces, particularly pamphlets and entered posters, give a quite precise idea of the organisation and activity of the indigenous peoples in their struggle for autonomy and then independence.
Cour d'assises de Blida et Tizi-Ouzou (1952) [Court of Assizes in Blida and Tizi-Ouzou (1952)]
The collection from the Court of Assizes in Blida and Tizi-Ouzou (110 T 1-7, 1952) is made up of files of proceedings for assassinations and murders on public authority officers committed in Lower Kabylie from June to September 1945 under the influence of the clandestine Parti du peuple algérien (PPA). The audiences date from February 1952, but the trials date from 1945. This collection throws light on the little-known facts of the 1945 rebellion.
Tribunal administratif d'Alger (1955-1962) [Administrative Tribunal of Algiers (1955-1962)]
The Administrative Tribunal of Algiers collection (7 K 101-107, 1955-1962) contains appeal proceedings for abuse of power during the Algerian war: the decisions attacked are either injections or compulsory order of residence measures (with two exceptions: suspension from duty or treatment). These measures were open to the Prefects after the declaration of a state of emergency in 1955. The petitioners belonged to the clandestine Algerian Communist Party, dissolved in 1955, or were even FLN militants. Furthermore, at least one affair concerned a lawyer whom the administration reproached for having "constituted an organisation of lawyers belonging to the FLN".
Cour d'assises de Bougie (1956-1962) [Court of Assizes in Bougie (1956-1962)]
The collection from the Court of Assizes in Bougie (210 T 1-10, 1956-1962) includes files of proceedings judged during the Algerian war for assassinations, murders and criminal associations (with two exceptions, a crime of fraud and one of sequestration).
Autres préfectures d'Algérie - Préfecture de Médéa, dite aussi du Titteri (1935-1962) [Other prefectures in Algeria - Prefecture of Medea, known also as Titteri (1935-1962)].
The prefecture of Medea, also known as Titteri, was created by the Decree of 28 June 1956 from the pre-existing arrondissement of Medea. In 1957 it was divided into six arrondissements (Aumale, Boghari, Bou Saada, Medea, Paul-Cazelles and Tablat). Three (Tablat, Aumale and Bou Saada) were removed in 1958 to form the new department of Aumale, whilst that of Djelfa was added to it. The Medea prefecture collection keeps the reports of the Prefect's cabinet on the general situation in the department and the dossiers on the Algerian war, particularly relating to the rallying of the rebels to France, to the camps and compulsory residence order centres as well as the roles of the heads of the specialised administrative sections. Of more particular note are the documents concerning the department prisons (the Berrouaghia central prison mainly), the individual files for the injunctions and a file for people of note.
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