Prison: the unworthy conditions of detention before the Constitutional Council

The Constitutional Council examined Tuesday, September 22 requests from detainees, who want to include in law the possibility for a judge to examine their conditions of detention and to put an end to “

” situations.

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These priority questions of constitutionality (QPC) follow a decision of the Court of Cassation in July, which gives the judge the possibility of freeing a prisoner, possibly under judicial supervision or under house arrest, if he finds that his conditions of detention are unworthy.

A "

"

advance

but which remains a "

", argued at the hearing the lawyer of the International Prison Observatory (OIP), Patrice Spinosi.

The judgment "

" but "

", advanced Me Spinosi before the Wise Men.

"

" to "

”put in place by the Court of Cassation.

"

" if his conditions of detention are "

", and the judge "

".

Among the solutions proposed: transferring a detainee or one of his co-detainees to another cell, or even to another establishment, freeing another detainee who is more likely to be released ... "

", and "

"can organize a solution of"

"between the rights of detainees and public order, he said.

The government representative, for his part, considered the decision of the Court of Cassation sufficient.

The judgment of the Court of Cassation came after a conviction in January of France by the European Court of Human Rights.

The ECHR had asked him to reduce prison overcrowding and to offer a real remedy to detainees who suffer from it.

Noting the existence of a "

", the ECHR had also recommended that the French authorities "

" to put an end to overcrowding and improve conditions of detention.

A message addressed to the legislator, argued Mr. Spinosi, and which was "

".

In front of the Sages, the prisoners' lawyers recalled the worst of French prisons: the 9m2 cells shared with two other people, the mattresses on the floor, the damp walls and the broken windows, the bedbugs and the cockroaches.

"

", in France or by the ECHR, noted Me Amélie Morineau, president of the association for the defense of prisoners' rights.

The Constitutional Council will render its decision on October 2.