This is a double punishment for children attending school in prison.
The education provided to them “is similar to schooling by default, inferior, both in volume and quality, to schooling in a free environment”, warns the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL) in a notice published in the Official Journal.
According to this opinion, sent on November 17 to the Ministers of Justice and National Education, the majority of minors “arrive in places of confinement with great academic difficulties, in the midst of chaotic and disrupted lives”.
“Under penalty of a worsening of these already shaky paths, the stakes are major both for the development and social integration of these children and for society as a whole,” observes the CGLPL.
The Minister of Justice responded to Dominique Simonnot, general controller of prisons, assuring that “access to education for minors deprived of their liberty” was “a real concern” of his services.
If academic monitoring remains lower in a closed environment, recognizes Éric Dupond-Moretti, over the last three years, it has increased, on average, “by 3 hours per week”.
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“I share your opinion to soon move towards 12 hours of hourly volume in juvenile halls and 20 hours in juvenile establishments,” adds the minister.
Currently, around 700 minors are incarcerated, 600 placed in closed educational centers and 22,000 hospitalized in psychiatric departments, it is indicated in the opinion.
Children “idle” during school holidays
But no national statistics exist to date on the number of children deprived of their liberty of school age, notes the CGLPL, which calls for a census of them in order to better identify their profiles, their difficulties and their needs.
In his letter, the minister relays “a survey carried out about a year ago concerning incarcerated minors”, affirming that “60% have been out of school for at least a year”.
The CGLPL opinion then recommends strengthening teaching so that it benefits from a curriculum comparable to that of students outside, particularly in terms of time, and ensuring educational continuity during school holidays, periods during which the locked-up children have nothing to do.
“As in ordinary contexts, teaching is stopped during school holidays,” notes Éric Dupond-Moretti, adding that this “does not prevent the minors concerned from having to carry out work in cells which is then handed over to teachers”.
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Finally, the prison controller calls for the establishment of a “legal and institutional framework” to “protect school education within places of confinement”, by guaranteeing the recruitment of teachers meeting needs and by creating a special status for the latter in order to enhance their mission.
Teachers who intervene in detention benefit from specific compensation, answers Mr. Dupond-Moretti.