INTERVIEW
How will France manage the release of prisoners accused of Islamist terrorism? Véronique Brocard, journalist specializing in legal affairs, published this Wednesday Les Sortants aux Arènes, an unprecedented and exclusive investigation into the care of 250 radicalized detainees, whose sentences were ten years or less than ten years, who will come out of here 2022. She was the guest of Patrick Cohen on Wednesday, in Europe midi.
"A heterogeneous population"
"They were able to talk not about the facts with which they are accused, but about the care: who took care of them, how they lived it? Some said to me 'it is useless, we are taken for children, we are made to do stupid activities', and others told me 'it's interesting, I was able to think about what I did' ", testified the journalist at the microphone of Europe 1, citing in particular a young girl for whom prison seems to have been beneficial. "She said to me: 'fortunately I went through prison, because it re-socialized me'".
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Others, on the other hand, are "locked in their deadly convictions, do not speak", was also able to observe Véronique Brocard, referring to "a category of impenetrable, impenetrable people, who refuse even to see a supervisor, who are locked up in their world and praying all day. " "There is one, whom I did not meet because he is extremely dangerous, who is sleeping on the floor while he has a bed, who has put a towel on the television, who is in isolation and who is very young! "
These 250 detainees, who should be released by 2022, are not convicted of blood crimes: they were tried for departures to Syria, for apology, for the financing of terrorism, details Véronique Brocard. It is therefore a "heterogeneous population" also made up of "detainees who get help, work, are open, and who are in normal detention. So there is a whole range of detainees and those who leave are those- the".
Monitoring before and after discharge
Among those who leave, the prison administration sometimes admits to the journalist the impossibility of certainty. The latter quotes in particular in her work the director of a prison service, who admits at the end of a meeting about a prisoner: "From the beginning, I did not know who he was, and until the end I will not know ".
"No one can read souls", recalls Véronique Brocard, "but there are tools". According to her, the prison administration has set up a procedure for two and a half years which consists of "constantly scrutinizing them, assessing their level of danger, trying to get to know them better". To do this, they strengthened their teams by including "shrinks, educators, integration and probation counselors whose job is recidivism, people are responsible for organizing the release, specialists in religious matters. . and obviously the prison intelligence, which monitors and examines them, "lists the journalist.
To read also : The Constitutional Council censures "security measures" for terrorists leaving prison
After the release of these inmates, things can still change. The Constitutional Council in early August censored a law that imposed security measures on outgoing terrorist detainees. However, measures still exist, affirms Véronique Brocard. "Everything focused on the electronic bracelet that the Constitutional Council considered unconstitutional. But there are measures; they do not come out like that: they are registered on a specific file which obliges them to report everything they do , like a move, to the gendarmerie. There may also be house orders which block them in their city and forbid them to go out, and for the most dangerous, intelligence, the DGSI, follows them, "she concludes.
Find the full interview with Véronique Brocard here: