The Captain-General had all prisons under his control; and the fate of all prisoners, either those imprisoned for petty or state offenses, lay in his hands. This did not mean that he personally supervised the prisons, but that his creatures and officers were subject to his orders, and the offices were within his gift. Thus he was able to extort fees for various functions, as well as to demand largess for leniency extended to state prisoners. Under Tacon's administration this power was exercised to such an extent that it became a public scandal.
The postal service also fell under the supervision of the Captain-General, and there were many ways in which he could make this office line his pockets. He acted as a police magistrate in the city of Havana, another fruitful source of revenue, particularly as the office was connected with that of president of the city council.
Cuba was divided into three districts, the western, central and eastern. Havana was the capital of the western district, Santiago de Cuba of the eastern and Puerto Principe of the central district. Each district had its governor who was directly under the Captain-General, and under the governor, in charge of the affairs of the larger towns and their out-lying districts, was a lieutenant-governor, who was president of the local council and had control of military affairs for his district. Under the lieutenant-governors were captains, who were located in regions which were not very thickly settled, and who had absolute military power--subject of course to commands emanating higher up--over the affairs, lives and property of the people under their jurisdiction. Each of these officers received his appointment from the Spanish crown, but he was obliged to receive his nomination from the Captain-General, so that these offices too were a source of revenue to that gentleman, and his nominees, when appointed, were subject to his control. The functions of the governors and lieutenant-governors were supposed to be primarily military, and they received the salary which would naturally attach to their rank, but since they also presided in civil and criminal cases in their jurisdictions, as did the Captain-General in Havana, the fees from these proceedings made very fat picking. Now the captains had no salary at all, and the style in which they were able to live depended on the number of fines they were able to impose, and therefore it is not difficult to imagine that they were not easy on any Cubans who came under suspicion of any offense. They received one-third of all fines imposed by them.