The International Observatory of Prisons announced that it had appealed Thursday, before the Council of State, of a recent decision of the administrative court of Lyon relating to the conditions of detention at the dilapidated prison of La Talaudière (Loire).
In an interim order, the OIP and the Association of Lawyers for the Defense of the Rights of Detainees (A3D) had seized the administrative court in March of the “unworthiness” of the conditions of detention in this penitentiary center in the region of Saint-Etienne. , opened in 1968.
But in his interim order issued on March 29, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the administrative judge only upheld two complaints out of the 32 exposed: the restoration of the lightning arrester and the distribution of hygiene kits to people detained.
“Unsanitary cells”, “waste”, “electrical risks”…
“To rule out the other requests made by the applicants, he relied in particular on the information produced by the Ministry of Justice, the accuracy of which he never questioned at any time,” said the OIP in a press release. For the OIP, a recent visit to the prison by an LFI deputy from the Loire, “brought to light the bad faith of the Ministry of Justice in its response to the court and the latter’s haste to believe it”.
“All of the findings made during the visit carried out on April 10 by the LFI deputy for Loire Andrée Taurinya are in contradiction with the information provided to the administrative court concerning the unworthiness of the conditions of detention at the La Talaudière penitentiary center” , writes the Observatory, denouncing “unsanitary cells, broken windows, courtyards strewn with waste, sanitary facilities not isolated from the rest of the cell, electrical risks…”
These “findings” drawn up on Monday by the parliamentarian, accompanied by a representative of the OIP and a team from France 2, “photographs in support, will be produced within the framework of the appeal filed this Thursday before the Council of State”, adds the Observatory.
146% occupancy rate
The OIP itself produced a critical report on this detention center, like others that have come out in recent years from the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty, and two parliamentarians from the Loire, Andrée Taurinya and Senator Jean-Claude Tissot (PS). Contacted by AFP, the management of the Prison Administration affirms that “the information provided to the administrative court corresponds to reality”.
“18 million euros of work has been undertaken in this establishment over the period from the end of 2021 to mid-2026”, according to the Interregional Directorate of Penitentiary Services (DISP) of Lyon for whom “Monday’s parliamentary visit essentially describes the situation of cells that have not yet been renovated”.
In this prison designed for 263 inmates, the current occupancy rate is 146%. A project for a new replacement prison in Saint-Bonnet-les-Oules (Loire) was abandoned in 2018.