Le Figaro Bordeaux
In Gradignan, prison overcrowding is the law. As a link in an overloaded judicial chain, the prison hangs by a thread. Thread woven by the (almost) infallible loyalty of a structurally proven staff. The penitentiary centre, whose admissions were suspended in mid-May until at least mid-June, houses 784 people, more than double its capacity. 70% of them are presumed innocent in pre-trial detention. These figures are also much higher than the capacity of the new prison, which provides for only 600 places. Still under construction, it could become overcrowded as soon as it moves. And all the more so, since we must add to this number, the imprisoned medical units and those of sentence adjustments - such as house arrest, which also depend on its administration. In all, 1147 people.
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The teams are in great difficulty in all areas, "admits the director of the prison, Dominique Bruneau, addressing Eric Poulliat. The deputy of the Gironde, accompanied by Le Figaro during this visit, is concerned. This prison, whose degrading living conditions have already been denounced a thousand and one times, no longer fulfills its primary function: to fight against recidivism. "When you are overcrowded, you do not reintegrate. We must not think that the difficult conditions break the prisoners. We make them even more difficult to leave, "analyzes the rapporteur for the prison administration and the judicial protection of young people during the draft law finance 2023.
Understaffed, prison guards are overwhelmed by the task. The first one we come across is sweaty. Worse, as several of his colleagues confide, the balance of power is now unbalanced. One floor, which can hold up to 80 or even 100 inmates, is guarded by a single officer. When he opens a cell, he is also alone in front of the three individuals, crammed into nine square meters. Mattresses on the floor, mold, filthy sanitary condition and faded paints... The unworthy ritornelle has become classic. A paradox contrasting with televisions and landline telephones, or even the fridges that are installed there. And the consequences of these conditions of detention go far beyond the back pain they cause to prisoners.
" READ ALSO "It's even more a sieve, there is everything that returns": drug trafficking explodes at the prison of Gradignan
Drugs, sex and social peace
Confined for more than ten hours a day in a space that does not allow them to line up two steps without stepping on each other, the prisoners are on edge. Under the doors of the cells, where they are allowed to smoke cigarettes, escape smells of cannabis, infiltrated by drones, during visits to visiting rooms or by other means even more difficult to trace, de facto tolerated despite regular seizures. Cocaine and dangerous drugs are also circulating. At a time when disciplinary advice is daily and assaults on prison guards are part of the weekly routine, it is impossible for officers to do otherwise.
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Drugs and mobile phones are part of social peace. Without this, there would be riots and assaults on staff every day, "concedes without endorsing Hubert Grateau. The union delegate of Force Ouvrière draws a bitter observation: the staff has neither the time nor the means to fight against this drug trafficking. To accompany the prisoners on a walk, the guards - always alone on each floor - are forced to regroup. This means concretely that several times a day their corridors, although locked, are unattended: at six to take out up to 60 detainees in the courtyard, those who have agreed to confide in Le Figaro recognize it in unison.
Yes, they have all been assaulted at least once. Yes, a visiting room monitored alone is a parlor where we look away when carnal relations are expressed "that have no place in a prison and even less in front of children". Yes, while they go down the floors, those who stay upstairs "can stay more than an hour in the showers". Yes, sometimes the prisoners are 15 instead of five in these same showers that they "turn into a hammam where they chat while smoking cigarettes". And if it seems impossible to escape from this prison, despite everything very secure, the prison guards "will not be able to do anything" if, one day, the inmates rebel or try to steal the keys.
Gradignan Penitentiary Detention Centre, an overcrowded French prison
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Disinsertion?
Due to a lack of time and resources, despite good intentions, reintegration, the main mission of prison, has become subordinate. "We do the incoming and the emergencies. Then, what was not urgent when it was reported to us ended up becoming so, "describes Dr. Fabienne Le Monnier. The head of the care unit of Gradignan, who "finds all the dimension of the Hippocratic oath in her functions", is faithful to her post despite a burn-out. The two doctors who recently took on these responsibilities had also cracked.
And for good reason: staff and budgets are not indexed to prison overcrowding or the vacancy of prison guards. In a schedule already full to bursting, an appointment can be canceled for lack of agent available to accompany the detainee. The conditions of detention, conducive to violence, lengthen the list of emergencies. Conclusion: despite "a very dynamic team" that carries out 30% more consultations than at the prison of Fleury-Mérogis, the good ones late accumulate. On Monday, there were 91 for Building A alone.
Same echo to the psychological cell. Inmates with serious psychological disorders, "who should not or no longer be there" are present. The prison of the Bordeaux metropolis counts about thirty, placed in individual cell and increasing the number of prisoners required to sleep on the floor. Sized for the capacity of the prison - 430 people and not 784 -, the service that also manages non-incarcerated prisoners, produces "work based on reports". When necessary, especially to prevent suicides, detainees are placed - in hospital gowns, without laces or sheets - in one of the two calming cells.
Two clean, painted calming cells can accommodate detainees who need it in an emergency for up to 24 hours. Marie-Hélène Hérouart / Le Figaro
Transfers and alternative measures
Three weeks after the introduction of the "stop lock-in" system, most of the places vacated were vacated by transfer. On May 9, the peak of accommodation had reached 874 people in situ and 1250 imprisoned, still for 430 places. The head of the prison registries, Aghrab Slimane, twenty years of work, summarizes the case simply: "The workload is only increasing, we no longer have time. You have to get to the point and avoid as many mistakes as possible." It subjects all files to a double check.
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Transfers or the "stop nut" is temporary. That cannot solve the problem. The only solution is to find an alternative to incarceration," insists Dominique Bruneau. Should a numerus clausus be established or prison regulation imposed, asks the prison director? In the meantime, MP Éric Poulliat can only make one observation in the guestbook: "Visiting a prison never leaves indifferent. We still have a long way to go to make it a place of deprivation, learning, confrontation with the rules and the fight against recidivism. All my admiration for the staff of the prison administration."
Christine Mazes, the President of the Bar of Bordeaux calls on lawyers to mobilize
Very concerned by "explosive prison overcrowding" of the Gradignan prison, Christine Mazes encourages the Bordeaux Bar to mobilize. After having questioned Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice, by letter on May 26, she called, Tuesday, lawyers to "request en masse alternative measures to detention so that the measure of house arrest under electronic surveillance is retained and applied as soon as the required conditions are met". A solution to relieve congestion in prisons that would simultaneously increase the task of magistrates, already overloaded, notes the prison service of integration and probation (Spip) of the Gironde. The snake bites its tail. The SPIP has insufficient staff for its activity. Nevertheless, according to Julien Plouton, these alternative measures are "the surest way to fight against prison overcrowding and especially recidivism". The criminal lawyer deplores "conditions of detention currently only punitive, which is not acceptable in a democratic society".