After housing inmates for several decades, the Saint-Michel prison in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) will now accommodate magistrates and clerks from the Ministry of Justice.
The prefecture has just announced the future of this 19th century building, near the courthouse, whose future has been uncertain for several years.
For a time, the town hall had considered an auditorium for the Capitol orchestra in the central star-shaped rotunda but the project was abandoned.
Aborted, too, was the plan to develop gardens, cultural spaces, housing and a new college supported by the departmental council.
An emblematic place in the neighborhood
To find a new function for this emblematic place in the district which extends over nearly two hectares, the State and Toulouse-Métropole launched a call for expressions of interest in July 2022. At the same time, the State studied solutions around its own services, and in particular those of Justice, which will strengthen their human resources by 10,000 jobs, a measure recorded during the general assembly of justice at the end of 2022.
“This is why the State real estate services studied a scenario where different departments of the Ministry of Justice could settle in the former Saint-Michel prison in order to find the spaces necessary for their development. and synergies between services, while being close to the Toulouse courthouse, indicates the prefecture.
Following the presentation of the conclusions of this feasibility study last January, the Ministry of Justice confirmed its interest in this site and decided to initiate a programming study, in order to make its project a reality.
Today, the public can only access the prison castle, that is to say the entrance including the facade and the courtyard, for exhibitions.