The Rennes penitentiary center will soon open a Radicalization Support Quarter (QPR) for women, as
Le Figaro
announced
last March.
This QPR for women
"is a first in France and in Europe"
, according to Véronique Sousset, the director.
"It's anything but a reinforced isolation neighborhood
," she said, presenting Thursday, July 29 to several media the cells still under construction which will be occupied by six women in September, and about thirty in the long term.
Read also: In prison, special units for female terrorists
Since 2016, the prison administration has opened QPRs for men, now six in number.
And it is the Rennes prison that was chosen for women because
"there is a know-how, a tradition, an experience of the establishment which is used to welcoming terrorist detainees"
, notes Véronique Sousset.
It is the largest establishment in the French penitentiary park exclusively for women, with nearly 200 inmates.
Six women will be welcomed in September, around thirty in the long term.
JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
To enter this QPR, you have to cross a large cloister-shaped courtyard in this prison built in the 19th century and which has the particularity of being located in the city center, a hundred meters from the futuristic Rennes train station. Then you have to cross a gate on the first floor to discover cells of 11m2, from where you can see through the bars of the houses of the Breton capital.
To avoid any proselytizing with the other detainees,
"these cells are sealed from the rest of the detention"
, specifies the director, stressing that these women will benefit from an activity room or a courtyard for the walk apart.
It should also be noted that the furniture (bed, wardrobe, WC) will be sealed for security-related issues, while six Islamist attacks have taken place in French prisons since that of Osny (Val d'Oise) in 2016.
The future court of radicalized prisoners JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
All cell openings will be carried out by a pair.
The fifteen people assigned to neighborhood surveillance, all volunteers, have also received specific training for three weeks.
"No magic wand"
During their stay in these QPRs, the inmates
"will have a real schedule and will be quite busy"
, promises Marie Fageot, integration and probation counselor.
On the program: sport, actions on disengagement from violence, work on self-esteem and the place of women in society or the arrival of a Paralympic vice-champion.
In addition,
"we are going to call on mediators of the religious fact who are Islamologists and will make it possible to approach the religious fact from a historical-critical point of view"
, explains François Toutain, director of the penitentiary services of insertion and of Ille-et-Vilaine probation.
A supervisor in one of the QPR cells, currently under construction JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
The objective is not to constitute a unit of “de-radicalization”:
“We have neither miracle recipe, nor magic wand.
Deradicalization is a fantasy, it probably does not exist ”
, judge Ismaël Righi, deputy director for the fight against radicalization.
The aim, on the other hand, is
"to instill in them a doubt about their belief and about what they have been made to believe"
.
Also, the passage in these QPRs is for a period of six months, renewable, knowing that the first reports of the QPRs among men show that this work of
"disengagement"
must generally last 18 months to bear fruit, before returning to France. ordinary detention.
A supervisor of the Rennes prison JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
According to sociologist Geraldine Casutt, researcher at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) and specialist in issues of female jihadism,
“the fact that a penal policy is being put in place for women shows that there is an awareness of the importance of women in the jihadist place ”
, in an opinion now marked by the failed attack near Notre-Dame by a commando of jihadist women in 2016.
Read also: Failed attack near Notre-Dame de Paris in 2016: Inès Madani sentenced on appeal to 30 years in prison
"For a long time, we wanted to consider them above all as victims of this radicalization, in the end it was always 'accidental radicalizations', because they fell in love or were manipulated, without ever being really seen as actors of this jihadist commitment"
, she notes.