- Two deputies visited the Lille-Sequedin remand center during the confinement
- Florence Morlinghem (related LREM) and Ugo Bernalicis (LFI) call to empty the prisons a little more.
One was "surprised by so much distress", the other tells of a "hushed but harsh" atmosphere: two deputies - a macronist and a melenchonist - visited the same prison in Lille during the confinement and called to empty a little more prisons.
Since the start of confinement, a slowdown in judicial activity and an order facilitating the early releases of detainees two months from the end of their sentence have emptied the prisons a little.
Prison density of 118%
When Florence Morlighem, deputy for the North (related LREM), appeared on March 25, eight days after the start of the confinement imposed against Covid-19, at the remand center of her constituency in Lille-Sequedin, establishment n has no protection to provide.
“I didn't go there to take pictures. But to make society aware that a country cannot do well when it detains people in conditions that do not allow for easy reintegration as it should be, "she told AFP. .
Some 9m2 cells planned for two then accommodate three prisoners, a mattress on the floor. According to the prison administration, there were 797 prisoners, representing a prison density of 118%.
Hanging rooms and activities
There are already suspicions of coronavirus, the visiting rooms and activities are suspended, but the guards have not yet received masks or gel, "while they have physical contact with the detainees, sometimes more or less inevitable".
"I did not expect to find so much distress on the part of the staff," admits Florence Morlighem. Admittedly, Sequedin is "a fairly recent remand center (opened in 2005), well organized, well structured - it is not Fresnes or Cayenne -" but this visit was "an emotional trigger".
" Glass ceiling "
A month later, when the deputy for the North (LFI) Ugo Bernalicis in turn visited the prison, on April 20, 705 people were imprisoned (105%).
But, according to him, the penitentiary center has reached a "glass ceiling" because "most of those who remain are destitute, homeless, to whom one cannot therefore apply the exceptional remission of sentences".
The parliamentarian spoke with two mothers confined with their young children, but followed by maternal child care; with an inmate who was unaware that her pre-trial detention had been automatically extended by two months; with medical staff, "refocused on recurrent treatments and emergencies, including dental".
"A cell with mold"
According to him, the supervisors were confronted, in the unit for violent detainees, with a man "even more violent than usual", for lack of activities and of meeting with psychologists.
As of April 20, an officer and an inmate had Covid-19, according to management, which has set up an area for inmates with symptoms and their "contact cases". "One of them understood that he must be in solitary confinement, but said to me" I find myself in a cell with mold, water that does not drain from the sink ... " ", Says Ugo Bernalicis, stressing" the involvement and goodwill of civil servants ".
And the two deputies make the same conclusion: continue to empty the prisons. The Insubmitted militates for an amnesty law, the Marcheuse to release certain detainees to whom there remains up to 12 months of detention.
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- Coronavirus
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- Society
- Lille