The Inspector General of Prisons denounces "culpable neglect" at all levels and "political calculations"
In his annual activity report, the General Inspector of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) denounces "culpable neglect" at all levels and criticizes certain decisions made by the Minister of Justice. From prisons to mental health facilities, including administrative detention centers and closed educational centers, "this culpable neglect is found everywhere," says prison inspector Dominique Simonnot, in the foreword to this report, which is due to be released in bookstores on Thursday, May 22.
"We are neglecting these people in petty calculations, political calculations, because no one cares," the former journalist from Le Canard enchaîné told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Except that these are very short-term calculations. If we look further ahead, the damage is enormous," Ms. Simonnot also warns. According to the report, 2024 was "marked for the fourth consecutive time by a worrying and harmful growth in prison overcrowding." These figures mark "the failure of the measures" included in the laws adopted in 2021 and 2023, when Eric Dupond-Moretti was at Place Vendôme.
In this context, "the establishment of binding prison regulations based on the law remains more urgent than ever," believes this independent administrative authority, which has been calling for several years for a mechanism to examine the possibilities of a prisoner's release at the end of his sentence before allowing other prisoners to return.
Modular prisonsA proposal supported by many players in the sector: in a report submitted in March, a mission, set up by the previous Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, and composed of magistrates, a prison director and a lawyer, also recommended "a long-term system for controlling staff numbers within penitentiary establishments" .
But Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin says he is "totally opposed" to such a measure. In a letter sent to magistrates last week, he prefers to highlight the construction of modular prisons, the expulsion of foreign prisoners, or the differentiation of prisoners based on their level of danger to address this problem.
Meanwhile, the promiscuity caused by prison overcrowding "increases the risk of conflict" and, in fact, the "number of incidents is increasing," the report emphasizes. Access to activities - work, education, sports, socio-cultural activities - is "drastically insufficient in a very large majority of establishments," it deplores.
However, "the lack of activities is an obvious factor in increasing tensions (...) as it is a matter of basic common sense that keeping three people locked up twenty-two hours a day in 9 square metres, with no other horizon than television, can only have a negative impact on their mental health."
A “vertiginous regression”The CGLPL took the opportunity to criticize Mr. Darmanin's decision to stop all "recreational activities" in prison that do not concern education, the French language or sport, following "a rumor of massages being given to inmates" at the Toulouse-Seysses remand center. A decision that was partially overturned on Monday by the Council of State .
"Everything in this story was false from start to finish," Simonnot told AFP, calling it an episode of "political spectacle." "In fact, beauticians gave them advice on how to take care of their skin, but taking care of your skin seems to me to be useful outside. It helps to regain a bit of self-esteem, but it also helps outside, to present yourself well, to find training, work, to reintegrate."
Similarly, in the report she criticises the creation, again by Mr Darmanin, of high security quarters to incarcerate the most dangerous drug traffickers , seeing it as a "dizzying regression" towards what was abolished in 1982 by Robert Badinter.
The situation in mental health facilities is no better, with "services ravaged by a lack of caregivers," which ultimately undermines patients' rights. In administrative detention centers, "the material living conditions are appalling," she added. The report also looks at court jails, particularly the one in Paris, where waiting times are often "excessively" prolonged due to a lack of resources and police personnel.
The World with AFP
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