The prisons have emptied because of the Covid-19, but this will not last

• French prisons have 13,500 fewer detainees for two months, according to a last report communicated to 20 Minutes  this Monday.
• The decrease in the prison population is due to confinement, which has led to the early release of certain prisoners and a decrease in delinquency.
• If Nicole Belloubet, the Keeper of the Seals, is working to stabilize the situation, she refuses any amnesty measure that could accompany this "prison deflation".

For once, the prison administration does not hesitate to speak of a "record". Because, unlike usual, the figure does not mean the explosion in the number of detainees. But the opposite. With a drop of 13,500 prisoners since the start of confinement put in place to fight the coronavirus epidemic, French prisons have reached a filling rate of 97%, or 59,000 people incarcerated for 61,100 places, according to the last official statement communicated this Monday at 20 Minutes .

A figure "so low" that the statisticians of the prison administration had to go back to 2001 to find such a situation in France. But it is also an average that necessarily hides disparate realities. Behind this 97% occupancy rate are prisons whose population has fallen sharply and remand centers, in the Paris region in particular, which still show, for some, occupancy rates ranging from 180 to 200%.

"Be careful, things are starting to go up ..."

But the general trend is downward. And there is no doubt about its origin: it is quite simply a collateral effect of the coronavirus. After briefly balking, Nicole Belloubet, the Minister of Justice, signed orders at the end of March facilitating the early release of prisoners at the end of their sentence and the granting of reduction of sentence credits in order to limit the risks of the spread of the crime. viruses in detention. On the one hand, the prisons have therefore partly emptied. But here no story of communicating vessels. Delinquency having also been confined, penal establishments experienced, at the same time, a drop in the number of inmates. This therefore intensified the general phenomenon.

#Tribunal #Coronavirus #Justice: Rémy Heitz: “The fall in the prison population is an achievement, the preservation of which must be taken care of. We will be careful that we do not find the levels we have known in the past. "

"Usually, there are around 120 police custody every day in Paris," said Rémy Heitz, the public prosecutor, in early May. In confinement, this figure dropped to 30 ... "Obviously, it is more complicated to rob someone who is trapped at home ... Pickpocketing and break-ins have dropped. Usually large providers of detainees, the immediate appearance hearings could even, rare thing, end at decent hours due to the low attendance ... "But beware, things are starting to go up," continued the magistrate. Since the beginning of the month, we have already returned to a figure of 60 police custody per day… ”

#Coronavirus #Justice
[ Transcript ]
Do you laugh at spitting at the police? @ 20Minutes followed the immediate appearances in Paris this Wednesday ... https: //t.co/QgPNYVvakD

The sentencing reform applied since March 24

Because the question is not really whether. But well when the penal population will start to rise again. On the road to the judicial court of Versailles (Yvelines), Tuesday May 12, Nicole Belloubet, herself, recognized him without make-up. "My only concern is that it doesn't go back too far ..." 

Pressed on all sides, and even in the columns of 20 Minutes where the lawyer Henri Leclerc asked her, Nicole Belloubet remains fiercely opposed to any idea of ​​amnesty law or pardon decree that would accompany this "deflation prison ”. "I am not in favor of it because I remain attached to the principle of individualization of the penalty and not to collective measures," she confided to us. And then we managed to lower the number of detainees by other means. This is therefore quite possible. "

“What I see is that the legislator periodically builds walls to protect citizens. And in times of crisis, we systematically break down these walls. So I'm waiting for them to be rebuilt ”

Henri Leclerc, words gathered by @vvantighem https://t.co/YOCRyMPjjL

The proof may lie in the latest sentencing reform. This provides for a wide range of “alternatives to confinement” such as internships and the use of community service. All that remains is for lawyers to apply for it and judges to use it. Provided they have had the information on this reform. It was implemented on March 24. In full containment.

Justice

Deconfinement: "I don't like the government taking people for children!" "Tackles lawyer Henri Leclerc

Justice

Coronavirus: "Another way of working for justice may be born", says Nicole Belloubet

• Justice
• Video
• Confinement
• Coronavirus
• Nicole Belloubet
• Jail