The game between guards, inmates of the prison of Fresnes (Val-de-Marne) and young people from the city, organized for the benefit of charities, was a "controversial act", declared its organizer, this Monday on CNews, assuring that "the goal was not to shock".

Called "Kohlanness", in reference to the game show Koh Lanta, the event, organized on July 27, provoked the indignation of several right and far-right personalities after the broadcast of a video on Friday on social networks, notably on YouTube, showing in particular a go-kart race in the prison yard.

"It created for them, for a moment, a social bond"

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti announced on Twitter on Saturday that he had “ordered an administrative investigation” and denounced “shocking images”.

“The fight against recidivism goes through reintegration, but certainly not through karting!

“, was offended the minister.

“Everything was in order.

We did not expect that” from the Ministry of Justice, explained Enzo Angelo Santo, producer of “Kohlanness” assuring that the ministry had validated this event.

"The goal was to show, for a moment, a moment of humanity between prisoners, guards and young people from the neighborhood," he added.

“We should not reduce our approach to karting”, he insisted, specifying that “all the prisoners” who participated in the program were “people able to reintegrate” and “in school”. .

If people detained for short sentences "are reduced to eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping with possibly an hour of sport, they will be on the margins of society when they leave", estimated Enzo Angelo Santo.

“It was an ephemeral morning with only a handful of prisoners selected by the prison administration (…) It created a social bond for them for a moment”.

“The scandal is not there”

A dozen detainees took part in “Kohlanness” and only two took part in the karting event.

On July 1, the Fresnes remand center had 1,918 prisoners for 1,336 places.

Asked about BFMTV, the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty, Dominique Simonnot, denounced "a somewhat strange and pathetic controversy".

“There are other things that happen in prison: mountain biking, horse riding, climbing, football between inmates and guards, but these images are not public,” she recalled.

“The scandal is not there, but in the prison overcrowding, and in particular in Fresnes, which is one of the most dilapidated establishments, stuffed with cockroaches, bedbugs, rats, and where life is dismal.

For the prisoners as well as for the guards”, underlined Dominique Simonnot.

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  • Jail

  • Fresnes

  • Koh Lanta

  • Eric Dupond Moretti

  • Justice

  • Youtube

  • Ile-de-France