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Unworthy conditions in prison: broad green light from the Senate to an appeal system

2021-03-08T18:53:12.132Z


To be able to challenge his conditions of detention when they are deemed unworthy: the right-wing majority Senate on Monday voted widely for a text aimed at meeting the requirement of the Constitutional Council to open a remedy for detainees. Read also: The Constitutional Council again seized of the unworthy conditions in prison All the groups voted in favor of the text. Only the PS group abstai


To be able to challenge his conditions of detention when they are deemed unworthy: the right-wing majority Senate on Monday voted widely for a text aimed at meeting the requirement of the Constitutional Council to open a remedy for detainees.

Read also: The Constitutional Council again seized of the unworthy conditions in prison

All the groups voted in favor of the text.

Only the PS group abstained, believing that "

the account is not there

".

The bill by the chairman of the Law Commission François-Noël Buffet (LR), on which the government has initiated the accelerated procedure, should be adopted definitively very quickly.

Its first reading examination is already scheduled for March 19 at the National Assembly.

On October 2, 2020, the Constitutional Council censored an article of the Code of Criminal Procedure which hampered the appeals of people placed in pre-trial detention in degrading conditions.

He demanded that a new law be passed before March 1, 2021, a deadline already passed.

This decision followed a judgment of January 30, 2020 of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemning France and a judgment of the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation.

"

Deprivation of liberty must not be - cannot be - a deprivation of dignity

", underlined the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti.

The proposed law provides under which conditions and according to which modalities a detainee can appeal to the judicial judge when he considers he is undergoing conditions unworthy of detention, so that they can be put to an end.

The person in pre-trial detention will be able to seize the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD), the convicted person who executes his sentence the judge of the application of sentences (JAP).

Women prisoners

It is only if the problem is not resolved by the Prison Administration within the time limit that the judge can order the transfer of the detained person or his release if he is placed in pre-trial detention or, under conditions, a adjustment of sentence if it is definitively condemned.

The LR rapporteur of the text Christophe-André Frassa underlined that "

the bill does not enshrine an absolute right to release

".

This involves reconciling the right to decent conditions of detention with "

the right to security and the objective of preventing breaches of public order

".

The Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty Dominique Simonnot welcomed, in a letter to senators, "

a major step forward for the improvement of conditions of detention

", but ruled that the text "

cannot be considered sufficient to preserve rights of detained persons

”.

For the socialist Jean-Pierre Sueur, the bill presents "

shortcomings and shortcomings

".

The senator relies on the letter from Dominique Simonnot who particularly deplores the "

excessive length

" of the proposed procedure or the too great complexity of the request that the detainee must address.

Among its amendments, only one was retained, which enshrines the right for the detainee to be heard before the judge makes his decision.

For the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP) association, the creation of a remedy "

will not put an end to the unworthy conditions of detention

".

"

The decision of the European Court posed as main requirement the immediate absorption, by France, of its prison overcrowding

", he recalls in a press release.

The Minister of Justice recognized that "

849 detainees are now forced to sleep on mattresses placed on the floor

".

"

An effective right of appeal does not repair blocked pipes, does not disinsect a cell,

" argued for her part the senator of the RDSE group with a radical majority Maryse Carrère.

On this international day for women's rights, senators drew attention to the living conditions of detained women "

who too often violate their dignity

", according to Éliane Assassi (predominantly communist CRCE).

Read also: Justice orders to improve detention conditions in Nanterre prison

Brigitte Lherbier (LR), for her part, called on the government to "

launch a reflection so that the living conditions of children in mother-child quarters are improved

".

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-03-08

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