- Every Friday, "20 Minutes" offers a personality to comment on a social phenomenon, in his meeting "20 Minutes with ...".
- For over a month, the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty, Adeline Hazan, has been alerting to the increased health risks in French prisons.
- It calls on the government to temporarily close detention centers and speed up the congestion in penal institutions.
Do everything to avoid contagion. Since the start of confinement and the coronavirus epidemic in France, the Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL) has been increasing the number of alerts. At the head of this independent institution for six years, Adeline Hazan is the voice of all those who are today deprived of their liberty. Detention centers, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, the Comptroller General is concerned about the health risks for residents of these structures cut off from the rest of society.
Since March 17, she has been urging the government to close the detention centers and pleading for massive and rapid congestion in French prisons. Faced with a lack of hygiene and endemic overcrowding, penal establishments present, according to her, a major health risk. In this interview given to 20 Minutes, she points out the slowness accumulated by the government to stem the epidemic behind bars.
After your hearing before the Law Commission on Wednesday, you went to the Paris-Vincennes detention center. Why did you want to make this trip?
For more than a month, we have been monitoring the situation in detention centers remotely. During the Easter weekend, we received numerous alerts from associations and unions of lawyers relating to the Vincennes detention center (Val-de-Marne), in particular regarding the detection of three cases of Covid-19. This generated a great deal of concern among the people selected and that is why I decided to go there with two controllers from my team. And we will soon be going to the center of Mesnil-Amelot.
Clashes have just broken out in this center and some detainees have started a hunger strike in Oissel near Rouen. But the Interior Ministry refuses to temporarily close these centers. Do you think this decision is justified?
I am very surprised by this decision. I am asking the government to temporarily close the detention centers since March 17 for two main reasons. The first is that there is a lot of privacy in these centers, in the bedrooms, in places of collective catering ... I consider that there is a health risk. Then, from the moment the borders are closed, especially those outside Schengen, this means that there will no longer be any return to the border. I believe that maintaining retention is against the law. The law authorizes the detention of persons with a view to their removal from the territory. However, once these removals are no longer possible, the legal basis for this detention is no longer available.
"I believe that maintaining detentions is against the law"
On March 17, Nicole Belloubet confided in the columns of " 20 Minutes""Not to be at all in the plan" to release detainees because of the health situation. Since then, we learned on Wednesday, the prison population has decreased by around 10,000 people in one month. Have these decisions been delayed?
Yes, the Keeper of the Seals made decisions too late. And even if we reach a significant threshold of fewer detainees in penal establishments, it is still not enough. As of March 1, 2020, there were over 13,000 redundant detainees in remand centers - which include in particular those placed in pre-trial detention awaiting trial. If we want to achieve an individual confinement, we must release at least 13,000 detainees. At the same date, there were around 72,000 prisoners in France for 61,000 prison places, of which only around 55,000 were actually usable. So we can see that we are still far from the mark.
Should the government think about an amnesty law? What would that imply and who could be affected?
Yes, an amnesty law would allow a certain number of people to be released from prison. Terrorism or domestic violence offenses would be excluded. But at this stage, the Keeper of the Seals refrains from thinking about this device and I find it regrettable. One could also provide for individual graces. The law prohibits collective pardons, but not pardons on a case-by-case basis. This may be an option, once again excluding certain offenses.
You also ask for the release of detainees who are six months from the end of their sentence. Why ?
I did not suggest the six month threshold at random. This is the quantum set by the law of March 2019 below which the magistrates must, as far as possible, arrange these sentences in an open environment to avoid detention. The legislator therefore considers that up to six months, priority must be given to alternatives to imprisonment. So let us base ourselves on this length of time and release all the detainees who are less than six months from the end of their sentence. As with amnesty or pardons, certain prisoners could be excluded from this device. The problem with the exceptional sentencing reductions put in place by the government is that they are only supposed to apply after a period of one month following the start of the state of health emergency and in operation inmate behavior. This is not what will unclog prisons during the crisis.
Is the objective of only one detainee per cell in remand centers really realistic in view of the prison overcrowding that affects all French prisons?
Not yet. If the Keeper of the Seals took measures to release a few thousand more detainees, then we could arrive at an individual confinement which I remind you that it has been compulsory since 1875. But from moratorium to moratorium, this legal obligation is constantly pushed back.
What do detainees suffer the most from today?
Everything has been deleted, they no longer have any activity, no valves and, in a remand center, they find themselves all day two or three in cells. We receive many letters and calls from detainees who say they are very anxious about the virus, the conditions in which they live and their hygienic conditions. The showers remain mostly collective, they have no gloves, no masks. The supervisors were equipped with them but very late - March 29 - and there is no question today of distributing them to the detainees. It should also be remembered that approximately three quarters of the prisoners suffer from psychological or psychiatric disorders. Finally, we receive many letters from families who are worried that they will not have news from their imprisoned loved one and who fear for their health.
However, measures have been put in place to "facilitate" the daily lives of detainees. Is it sufficient ?
No. Free television is very good. But concerning the telephone credit of 40 euros granted to each detainee, this is insufficient. The telephone is their only possible activity, their only contact with the outside. I plead for a total free telephone during the health crisis. It is not about saving money, it is about giving inmates the opportunity to keep in touch with the rest of the world.
"The risk of mutiny hangs over French prisons today and everyone is worried"
Do you think the risk of widespread mutiny really exists?
Yes of course, the risk is hanging over French prisons today and everyone is worried. There were some fairly serious movements when the abolition of family visiting rooms was announced. Since then, apart from a few incidents here and there, it seems to have subsided. What should be welcomed is that for the moment we are not faced with an explosion of cases of Covid-19 in prisons since there are 60 cases in all establishments. But if this figure were to increase, refusals to return to cell and mutinies are to be feared.
Our file on the coronavirus
Can this health crisis have, in your opinion, a “positive” impact on the management of places of deprivation of liberty?
I hope so. We talk a lot about the “next world” so if we could learn a certain number of lessons after this dramatic crisis, I think it would be positive. I have been advocating a form of prison regulation for prisons for six years and that is exactly what is happening. This clearly shows that the solution is not systematically confinement and that one can do otherwise. Prison overcrowding is not inevitable. If we really wanted to and if we gave ourselves the means, we could get out of the culture of all confinement. I hope this health crisis will demonstrate this.
Society
Coronavirus: Concern and tension increase in the face of risk in detention centers
Society
Coronavirus: Nearly 10,000 fewer detainees in French prisons
- Society
- Nicole Belloubet
- Detention center
- 20 Minutes with
- Virus
- Jail
- Covid 19
- Containment
- Coronavirus