Model jails.
At the Paris court, accompanied by the deputy "Renaissance" Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, the president of Paris exercised on Wednesday her right to visit places of deprivation of liberty, under article 719 of the Code of criminal procedure.
But also in solidarity with the National Conference of Presidents.
The latter, under the impetus of its president, Bruno Blanquer, president of Béziers, invited all the presidents of the president to exercise their right of visit everywhere in France to alert on the "persistent indignity" of the conditions of detention.
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In question, unsurprisingly, “
prison overcrowding, which is exploding in all French prisons despite all the laws that have been passed for 10 years
”, sighs Bruno Clément-Petremann.
He is the director of the prison of Health which, five years after its rehabilitation at great expense, accommodates 1,200 prisoners for 708 places and has 141 mattresses on the ground.
To relieve the most famous remand center in France, the prison administration relies on its semi-freedom district of 80 places, which is also full.
“
Neither the Taubira law nor the penalty block of Nicole Belloubet
– which prohibits short sentences – he recalls, were not enough to empty the jails of the Republic.
In a prison like Health, a third of prisoners are serving sentences of between 3 and 8 months, as many have mental disorders, and 50% are there for domestic violence, as much a priority as a national scourge.
Combined, in 2022, with the increase in delinquency, the prison population is exploding.
And the number of detainees housed throughout Ile-de-France peaks at 14,000, divided between 17 prison establishments on the verge of implosion.
Their directors and staff are betting on a new measure to empty prisons, the one slipped into Eric Dupond-Moretti's Confidence law of December 22, 2021: automatic release from sentence at two-thirds of the sentence, with or without support, with or without a project.
“
But that will not be enough
”, warns the Director of Health who advocates detention under an electronic bracelet at home, another means which, at little cost, makes it possible to offload the prisons, without the inconvenience of having to manage the detainees.
"
We have already been warned that our 166% prison overcrowding was only the beginning
, he worries.
We are asked to anticipate a massive increase in the latter because of the Olympic Games and the expected delinquency
”.
Except that a remand center cannot refuse detainees.
The contrast is striking when you enter the basements of the Paris court.
On the “minus two” and “minus one” floors, where the detention antenna is deployed for those who come to see their judge or await their judgment, we are bordering on prison perfection.
If only by the hushed silence that reigns there, the cleanliness of the premises and the individual celling - required by a law of 1875 and always rejected for more than a century.
Everything about detention is found here, however, down to the sweetish smell so particular to detention and promiscuity.
We find the clerestory ceilings, which serve as floors on the upper floors, the corridors with polished concrete floors, each being reserved for women, minors and men, depending on the penitentiary establishments from which they come.
Lined up there are individual gray cement jails with glass doors, equipped with a water point.
It's lunch time.
"
Hot with starter, main course, dessert, fruit
", smiles the prison officer, responsible for detention for four years.
The prisoners, - 53 that morning for 78 jails - eat very close to the entrance of their cell to glean a little light.
Minor or adult detainees, no one shuns their tray.
Meals are a highlight of detention.
Especially since all are up at dawn and they wait between four and five hours, sometimes more, for their legal appointment, before being able to return to their respective establishments, sometimes late at night.
A team of 36 experienced supervisors watch over their “population”.
“
Here, we have neither solitary confinement nor disciplinary quarters.
And we are always in physical contact with the detainees since we enter the jails to serve meals and to chat.
So I don't want supervisors who yell or get angry.
You have to know how to be calm to naturally lower the pressure when it rises because of what happened up there...
”, underlines the prison officer, pointing to the court above him.
His obsession: the rotation of escorts who carry out judicial extractions for the entire Paris region, and for which 30% of the workforce is missing.
The goal ?
Avoid the clutter of the small detention in order to guarantee peace....