France: a report denounces the difficult access to specialized care in prison
An inmate in a physiotherapy room at the Fresnes prison hospital, south of Paris, on November 25, 2020. AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT
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3 mins
The International Observatory of Prisons (OIP) publishes, Wednesday, July 6, a report on access to specialized care in French prisons, excluding psychiatry.
A little explored subject.
Prisoners are most often damaged people with a degraded state of health compared to the general population and incarceration itself promotes the onset of many pathologies.
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Lack of medical personnel, lack of suitable premises, security logic that undermines medical care and monitoring... In its report, published this Wednesday, the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP) warns of the lack of care in prison which often leads to the deprivation of prisoners of their right to health.
Often undignified medical extraction conditions
Mani, 35, is serving a long sentence.
Imprisoned for seven years, he suffers from a skin disease that generates abscesses concentrated on the genitals.
For lack of care, he must wear diapers.
He also underwent major back surgery.
His sister Nora testifies: “
Sometimes, like last week, I have to call the detention center to bang my fist a little on the table so that a doctor deigns to come and see him.
That is to say, he found himself lying on the ground on a completely collapsed mattress
, she says.
It's absurd to come to this.
»
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Mani just needs a decent mattress.
“
Most of the time, on medical certificate, the equipment can be granted to the person who requests it.
But the head of the establishment can oppose it for security reasons
, explains Pauline Petitot, of the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP).
It turns out that he has the status of a particularly flagged prisoner.
And so, it is this status that the headteacher invoked.
Mani did not get a new mattress.
Without being able to consult a specialist in prison, a prisoner should be able to seek treatment outside.
But the conditions of escorted extractions are often unworthy.
Most often, detainees are handcuffed, shackled, shackled at the feet or around the waist.
“
This leads people to give up treatment, especially when these same barriers are maintained during the consultation and when the supervisor stays on during the consultation,
” emphasizes Charline Becker of the OIP.
We understand that in these conditions, especially for intimate consultations, people also often refuse.
»
Too long delays
The other downside is the delays in obtaining appointments: several months – or even never – for the most requested specialties (dental care, physiotherapy, cardiology, ophthalmology), notes the report, which is not interested only to physical (and not psychiatric) care.
“
Me, what struck me was the proportion that small pathologies can take because of the lack of means and the lack of caregivers,
notes Odile Macchi, sociologist at the OIP, co-author of the report.
Dental or physio problems that suddenly arise.
We have several cases of people who have a dental abscess at some point and who bang their heads against the walls so much it hurts, who cannot get an appointment and who are given painkillers.
This waiting time is also aggravated by communication problems (...) I have the impression that at the same time, everything takes on a much larger proportion because there is a lot of uncertainty and a lot of sometimes misunderstanding of the prison staff who act as the interface.
»
Since 1994, the right to be treated for a detainee is nevertheless enshrined in law.
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: Prisons: those forgotten in the fight against Covid-19
(
March 18, 2021
)
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