2023-08-25 14:46:54
“At a time when so many people speak without knowing about young people and delinquency, this is an extremely enriching exhibition. Alexis, a father, encourages as many people as possible to go to the departmental archives located within the Chamarande estate (Essonne). Until December 1, visitors can discover “Youth in the shade” for free. An exhibition on the places of confinement of minors in Essonne through three existing sites or having existed: the observation center of Savigny-sur-Orge, the closed observation center of Juvisy-sur-Orge and the youth center detainees at Fleury-Mérogis.
“We produced this exhibition in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the historical association for the judicial protection of minors,” says Nathalie Noël, in charge of public relations and partnerships at the Essonne archives and movable heritage department. We have so many documents. In particular around the center of Savigny-sur-Orge: 25,000 files and 310 linear meters of archives were transferred to the departmental archives. For twenty years, these testimonies of teenagers constitute constantly renewed research perspectives. »
Chamarande, July 18, 2023. 25,000 files, including many writings, testify to the loneliness of these locked up children. LP/Cecile Chevallier
Like many drawings or writings in which the notions of confinement, prison, loneliness come back repeatedly. A mosaic of black and white portraits is surprising: the visitor knows that they are minors, but the immortalized faces already seem to be those of men.
From “penal colonies” to dedicated criminal justice
“Based on the judicial and penitentiary collections kept in Essonne, the exhibition explores a diversity of approaches and experiences that oscillate between observation, education, training and detention, continues Nathalie Noël. This history is also interested in the paths of young people, in establishments, places of experimentation of public policies, a reflection of the territorialization and modernization of judicial institutions. »
After experiencing the “penal colonies” qualified as child labor camps, correctional or reformatory houses, minors benefit from “dedicated” criminal justice, the main principles of which were formalized in an ordinance of 1945. In the years 1960, a network of establishments and centers for educational action in an open environment was born in France, and the territory of Essonne is witness to this.
From 1945, the observation center of Savigny-sur-Orge (transformed in 2007 into a closed educational center) welcomed the first minors, only young boys aged 13 to 20, within the vast agricultural estate of Champagne on the plateau of Savigny. “Being the only establishment of this type near Paris, it is quickly overstaffed”, relates the exhibition.
“At the time, everything had to be built,” recalls Nathalie Noël. The specific approach to so-called maladjusted childhood has given rise to new professions such as that of educator. The funds preserved around these centers having existed or still existing (that of Juvisy-sur-Orge closed in 1979, the last director considered that it was a prison which does not say its name, a rotting shack, a pressure cooker under pressure and the site was sold to the city and transformed into a park, housing and a retirement home) constitute a mine for current professionals. »
Among the many pieces of information delivered by the cartels of the exhibition, the one on the Fleury-Mérogis remand center, the largest in Europe, attracts attention. We learn that this prison opened on May 6, 1968, during the events of revolt in France, in particular of the youth. “As soon as it opened, young people occupied the three-bladed D 2, explains the exhibition. They are subject to an educational regime and are supervised by educators, National Education teachers, technical instructors and sports monitors. »
In 1998, an interministerial mission on the prevention and treatment of minors overwhelmed the operation of the center for young prisoners in Fleury-Mérogis, then the largest ward for minors in France according to the international prison observatory, and a decision was taken to close. Currently under construction, it must be transformed into a detention center for long sentences.
Exhibition at the departmental archives, in the Chamarande area, 38, rue du Commandant Arnoux in Chamarande (free admission). Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., also on Sundays until October from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. FREE ENTRANCE. Information on 01.69.27.14.14.
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