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Coronavirus: between high tension and fear, immersion in French prisons

2020-03-29T05:48:30.501Z


Fear of the epidemic, lack of protection, underestimation of cases and decline in drug supplies: the Covid-19 shakes the


"Wow! "Go ahead ...!" You are going to see at the promenade how I am going to smoke you "" Close all your g ...! ": Glued to the grating which diffracts the view from a cell of this penitentiary center in the south of France, the mobile phone transmits the invective between buildings. The classic prison soundtrack? "Nothing to do with before, warns the owner of the laptop in question, Jocelyn (his first name has been changed), 36 years old. With the coronavirus, the tension is permanent. "

If 5,000 prisoners out of the 70,000 in France will soon owe him their freedom, for the others, the virus weighs like a sword of Damocles. An insidious threat experienced as a double punishment, the consequences of which everyone dreads in a prison environment, however by definition confined. "Death does not scare me," says Jocelyn, bravely. All we want is to be able to fight with the same weapons as the others. "

He doesn't even talk about masks - "we know that caregivers need them more than we do" - but "simply to have at least hydroalcoholic gel and bleach. A claim still far from having been satisfied in all establishments. “We are at the bottom of the ladder. Here we have water, Coca and Tahiti shower at 4 euros. That's how we clean the floor… ”

"We are limited to a pair of jogging bottoms and seven T-shirts per week"

The instructions of the administration were however clear: maximum hygiene. "We check if there is soap, otherwise we give it for free," says Laurent Ridel, interregional director of prison services in Paris. It's the same for laundry and cleaning products. These are common sense measures. But as often, and even more so in prison, the ideal collides with the real, and these distributions vary very clearly from one establishment to another. “Since the visiting rooms are removed, we are reduced to the laundromat, regrets Louis (his first name has been changed), 25, imprisoned in the detention center (CD) of Longuenesse (Pas-de-Calais). We are limited to a pair of jogging bottoms and seven T-shirts per week. Is that hygiene? "

The ban on visits crystallized resentment. But impossible to see there the only reason of the tens of refusals to reintegrate the cells which agitated a majority of establishments at the beginning of week, before the situation does not find a semblance of normality. Through messages on the Snapchat application, "we noted a real, coordinated attempt to destabilize," notes this prison source. This was characterized by a mass of rumors and fake news that had to be constantly denied: for example that the walks would be deleted, or that the canteens ( Editor's note: the detainees' grocery store ) would be closed. "

Damage to the Uzerche detention center following the mutiny./DR

A note from the territorial intelligence services, which we were able to consult, thus evoked at the beginning of the week "a message, circulating between the detainees, calling for the blocking of all the prisons in France. Which has spread just as quickly as the legitimate fear of the virus. In detention, a single figure embodies this dread: the supervisor, necessarily vector of the disease with his body defending. “Between the walls, anxiety flourishes on fertile soil, sighs the same source. But there is no denying that the contamination has come and will come from the outside. Supervisors are now seen as Chinese a month and a half ago. "

"They think they are going to die ..."

"They come in and go out. They can contaminate, "sums up Marlo (his first name has been changed), 26, who passed through Fleury and then the prison hospital in Fresnes, before being released this week due to diabetes which has worsened. He does not hide his relief: “Everyone is on BFM. When we learned about the first death, there was panic. "My companion is freaking out," notes Audrey, wife of an inmate incarcerated in the North. I try to reassure him, to say to him: as long as you don't cough, it's okay . But it's hellish. Everyone bangs on the doors throughout the night. They think they will die ... "

“I have it less and less on the phone, saddened Sahdia, 35, whose husband is detained in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne). He is afraid of touching the handset, of being infected, many of them use the telephone booth. "The contact, random, is maintained," but it's always very brief, laments Sahdia. The last time, he said to me: I am afraid, I can do more. Tell the kids that I love them, that Dad takes care of him to go home . ”

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So, Sahdia finds herself contemplating the worst, especially since her husband is "auxi", short for "auxiliary", the names of these prisoners carrying out on behalf of the administration of maintenance work or the distribution of meal. A position particularly at risk at the moment. “He told me that he had seen the first detainee who died in Fresnes, panics Sahdia. If we lose him over there, I don't know how we're going to do it. I am alone with our two children, including my disabled daughter. Without a visiting room, it's nightmarish. "

Absence of bleach and disinfectant

“It's psychosis, complete Sébastien (his first name has been changed), supervisor at Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne). At the slightest headache, at the least aches, the prisoners ask to go to the infirmary. "On Wednesday, three of my wings were released because they were suspected of being infected," continues Jocelyn. How do you want us to react? "And how to protect yourself?" Continues Djibril (his first name has been changed), 22, who has just left the Manson remand center (Sarthe). We have neither Doliprane nor thermometer. "

At the Nanterre remand center (Hauts-de-Seine), "we have not seen one of the supervisors for fifteen days," says Hicham (his first name has been changed), a 32-year-old prisoner. We are told that he is on vacation. During confinement? »« The problem is that it is impossible to respect the safety distances of three in 9 m2, summarizes in echo Jocelyn. We are not given bleach or disinfectants. "If a guy has it, everyone has it," said Marlo. The supervisors are not equipped. They don't even have tests. "

In fact, when proven cases number in the tens, the number of suspected cases in detention is now several hundred, and will most likely be counted by the thousands. In Fleury-Mérogis, the largest prison in Europe, only one positive case was to be reported on Wednesday. He was isolated, with specially equipped supervisors, in particular overcoats and charlottes, to take care of him. But according to the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, in the absence of screening, the number of infected is clearly minimized. "You have to wait until the detainee has a high fever, difficulty breathing or falls on the ground before he is put in solitary confinement", deplores Thomas Bernaert, local assistant FO manager.

"The supervisors are in the same boat as us"

In Fleury, eight supervisors - almost all of a team in charge of a building - have symptoms and have been placed in confinement. "If the disease enters the prison, it's good for us," confirms Sébastien. We are so afraid that some will end up declaring that they have Covid-19 so that they do not come to work. "The supervisors, they understand us," Jocelyn explains. They are the ass between two chairs, and in the same galley as us. "

In prison, as everywhere, protections are slow to come. Out of the 11 million masks ordered by the Ministry of Justice two weeks ago, very few have arrived. 100,000 are expected to be distributed soon. "The means are not there," notes Thomas Bernaert, the trade unionist FO. For masks, we know that what we will receive will be a drop of water. It would be necessary for all the supervisors in contact with prisoners. "

At the Nanterre remand center (Hauts-de-Seine), the precious protections were delivered this Saturday morning. "It was time," exclaims Frédéric Lesport, delegate of the FO-penitentiary union. Those who enter prison are potential vectors of the virus, so equipping the guards was necessary. The stock received should allow us to hold at least two weeks. "Relieved, it nonetheless remains bitter towards the Ministry of Justice:" The delivery of the masks follows our legal action brought since yesterday (Friday) against the Keeper of the Seals for endangering the lives of others, "he adds, judging the management of the epidemic in prisons" disastrous ".

The Fresnes prison center, where the first detainee died of coronavirus./LP/ Philippe de Poulpiquet

In the meantime, everyone is trying to organize. At Fleury, "the sheets in the cells are changed every week and no longer every two weeks", describes Sébastien. And according to concordant testimony, security measures have been reduced everywhere. Starting with the increasingly palpable security patches.

In Nanterre, in the wake of a refusal to reintegrate, which again resulted in the muscular intervention of ERIS - the specialized teams -, five inmates from one floor were summoned by the management. "She guaranteed them there would be no more cell searches," says Hicham. We also got one shower a day instead of three a week, and that food was delivered by tray, and no longer on the plate, to limit the risks. »Measures that are just as prophylactic as they are to prevent a discontent. It is also the objective of the decision of the Ministry of Justice to make the rental of televisions free of charge, and to allocate 40 euros of telephone rate to those who need it most, or about 11 hours of monthly communication.

Football fields are never empty

In Fleury, for example, the walks also went to two hours instead of an hour and a half previously. But for many detainees, the virus has resulted in more drastic living conditions. Thus, the Respecto modules, which allow “trusted” prisoners to be able to circulate on the passageways, for example, have been mostly suspended or reduced. "We also recovered patients from the semi-liberty district," says a nurse from an Ile-de-France facility. They who were free the afternoon before confinement are now locked up all day. They lost the little freedom they had. "

5,000 short-term prisoners will be released. About 2,000 have already been. Will this be enough to prevent the Covid-19 from flourishing behind bars? Very few believe it. In an establishment like Fresnes, overcrowding remains endemic, at almost 150%. Above all, "all the workshops, the work, the school, the visiting rooms have been suppressed, but not the sport", breathes an animator of a Parisian suburban prison. In his establishment, the football field is always full. "It's incredible," he laments. I spoke to the management about it, but I was told that it was a stress reliever, that if we removed football, it would be a riot. "

So he continues to bring together two teams on a daily basis. Or up to thirty players on the field, who “clap their hands, congratulate themselves, sweat, wipe their faces, swap their shirts…” He has distanced himself from her, observes, no longer participates and no longer squeezes the hand. "The detainees are aware of the problem," he sighs. But they are young and feel invincible. And then, they say that there are three of them in the cell, so as much to play. "

"We are constantly in conflict management"

At the Melun detention center (Seine-et-Marne), prisoners benefit from individual confinement. But there as elsewhere, the promenade remains a source of concern. "Once outside, everyone sits side by side on the benches," describes a supervisor. There are groupings. "Like at Fleury," we check each other, we spin the cigarettes. "

But more cannabis joints. And that is the problem. "Beyond the health situation, the consequences of the coronavirus are mainly psychological," notes this prison source. Many prisoners have fragile and dependent profiles. Weaning is anything but obvious. Because with confinement, narcotics have become scarce. "It's simple: on the last walk, we talked more about that than corona, notes Hicham, in Nanterre. It was: do you have any? No ? Do you know who has it then? Do you know where I can find it? "According to the same," 60% of people smoke, and there's nothing left. No more projections over the wall. "

Grumbling movements in detention have increased, as here in Uzerche./DR

"This has repercussions on our work," notes this supervisor from the north of Ile-de-France. It became untenable. We are constantly in conflict management. "Those who had stock made prices soar, notes Sébastien, at Fleury. Lack is the starting point for the fights of the moment. In this same prison, one of the demands during the blocking, last Sunday, of an entire floor, was, moreover, that what had been previously seized in the visiting rooms be returned. Either phones and drugs. "With us, we still have a few missiles , but it's getting more and more complicated," annoys Jérémie (his first name has been changed), a thirty-year-old incarcerated in Longuenesse. People outside don't go out anymore. "When we call our outside contacts for stupas, they don't even answer," confirms Louis.

An increase in tension to be expected

According to our information, a supervisor of the same Longuenesse establishment was also arrested this week, while he was trying to illegally bring cell phones into detention. On Monday, the CD was rocked by violent riots. They ended in the destruction of a promenade yard, and even a surveillance post. "You have to understand: the visiting rooms are prohibited, but the supervisors come to work without a mask and without being screened," explains Louis. Should be logical. Especially since there are glass parlors here that could be used, for example with one visitor at a time. "

"We feel helpless," says Jocelyn. Of course, part of the population thinks that if we are there, it is because we deserve it. But the majority are there for bullshit, for me because of driving without a license. This weekend, a precarious calm reigned in a majority of establishments. But opinions are unanimous to predict a renewed tension as the virus will spread behind the walls, despite numerous exfiltrations in other establishments of the leaders of many rebellions.

"The fear of a domino effect is real", evokes Thomas Bernaert, of FO, even if this prison source wants to believe that "whatever happens, by its configuration, the epidemic will be less massive in prison than at l 'outside. "The acts of rebellion have subsided, but the pressure cooker hisses more and more," warns Jocelyn. Others also fear the arrival of Ramadan, which should start on April 23. "I think it's going to blow up again," predicts this supervisor.

Source: leparis

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