2023-06-23 06:15:09
Dominique Simonnot, general controller of places of deprivation of liberty, on October 11, 2022, in Paris. CORENTIN FOHLEN/DIVERGENCE
Dominique Simonnot is the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty. She denounces a « abandonment of the State » to the situation in French prisons. It also warns of the situation in psychiatry and in administrative detention centres.
The justice orientation and programming bill is currently being debated in the National Assembly. Are you satisfied with its penitentiary component?
Nothing is proposed to remedy the overcrowding, apart from the construction of prison places. [Le ministre de la justice] Eric Dupond-Moretti certainly talks about release under duress [effective depuis le 1er janvier]. Without this device, there would be around 76,000 detainees [contre 73 162 au 1er mai] for 60,899 operational places. But a policy of deflation and prison regulation is not that, it is something considered, more global.
An amendment co-written by Communist MP Elsa Faucillon and her colleague (Renaissance) Caroline Abadie calls for prison regulation, with the aim of respecting the ceiling of 100% occupancy in remand centers by 2027. is it in a good way?
It’s going in a very good way. They had the intelligence to do this gradually, to avoid scaring people and show that they are reasonable. I can only endorse them. La France insoumise must also propose an amendment to this effect.
Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers “There is a way to move towards more humane prisons: prison regulation”
The Minister of Justice has repeatedly said that he is opposed to the penal regulation system, saying that releasing 13,000 detainees was too risky a decision in the context of the rise of the far right. Do you understand it?
Yes, but governing also means taking risks. These releases would not take place all at once, of course, and would be supervised, and the National Rally is rising very well on its own.
To fight against overcrowding, Eric Dupond-Moretti highlights the construction of new places and the strengthening of additional penalties such as community service (TIG) as well as the establishment of release under duress. Is it sufficient ?
The Keeper of the Seals sweeps away the assertion “the more prison places we build, the more we fill them” as if it were a bogus belief, an urban legend, but it is proven. Example: Lutterbach prison (Haut-Rhin) was opened at the end of 2021, announced in 2008. We went there recently: 195% occupancy. It’s already deteriorated and there aren’t enough supervisors.
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