INTERVIEW
After returning to television on LCP last January, Maïtena Biraben returns, still on the parliamentary channel, with a new program, Déconfinés , a cultural magazine intended for all people confined by the coronavirus crisis, but also and above all prisoners and prison staff. Invited Thursday of Culture Media , on Europe 1, the journalist came to present this program which starts Friday evening and pleaded for a better taking into account of the situation of the prisoners.
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In these times of confinement, "we all touch with our fingers what it is not to be able to go outside, to no longer be free to move", explains Maïtena Biraben, who wanted, through this program, "to speak at this angle death of the Republic, at a time when we think a lot about Ehpads, and a little less about prisons ". "A cell is 7.22 m2," recalls the guest from Europe 1, "sometimes, when we are lucky, we are two, sometimes we are three, or three plus two mattresses on the floor" .
These living conditions are further aggravated by the coronavirus epidemic. "There are no more visiting rooms, no more visits. All activities, such as sport, have been stopped. There are no masks, no gels. We are abandoned", deplores -she. Hence the interest in promoting the access of prisoners and staff to culture.
"I hope we will realize that there is a real subject"
Lasting 52 minutes, the program is broadcast every Friday at 7:30 p.m., then rebroadcast at 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. During each issue, a prison director, a member of the prison staff, or a "great voice", like the tenor of the bar Me Henri Leclerc, intervenes.
The show also includes a sports lesson from an athlete, such as Real Madrid star Karim Benzema, or judo champion Clarisse Agbegnenou, and a reading board from a cultural figure, such as rapper Akhenaton. Lastly, LCP obliges, a deputy is also invited each week in the emission, to evoke his relation to the prison. And if the subject seems thorny, "the deputies call us to participate," says Maïtena Biraben.
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For the former journalist of Canal +, this program on the prison world could allow viewers to change their outlook on the prison but also on its actors. "I think that at the end of this period, we will all have another look at the lawyers, the deputies, the prison staff," she said. Recalling that France has been condemned several times by the European authorities for the state of its prisons, Maïtena Biraben hopes "that we will realize that there is a real subject".