associations denounce new measures against prisoner escapes

After the attack on a prison van in Eure and the escape of Mohamed Amra, the minister’s responses do not convince these associations, which speak of “collective punishment” based on “all security”.

The Human Rights League, the French lawyers’ union, the Prison Observatory and Secours catholique, among other organizations, co-signed a letter addressed to Éric Dupond-Moretti, to express their “deep concern” about the answer “all safe” brought, according to them, urgently by the Minister of Justice after the tragedy of Incarville. MOn May 14, two prison officers were killed in the attack on their van in Eure, at the Incarville tollbooth. Three others were seriously injured.

In the days that followed, the inter-union of prison guards met several times with the Minister of Justice. At the end of these meetings, a statement of decisions was drawn up on May 17. The form and timetable of the consultation thus initiated must appear on the agenda of a new meeting at Place Vendôme on June 10.

Among the thirty measures on which Éric Dupond-Moretti is committedbeyond the additional equipment and weapons for the agents responsible for extracting detainees, we note the desire to reduce the number of escorts with the use of more telemedicine for prisoners, and more videoconferencing for meetings with judges. Magistrates are even invited to go to prison themselves when it comes to hearing prisoners deemed the most dangerous. According to the associations, complicating access to care and making access to a judge more difficult represents an attack on fundamental rights.

Another avenue, rewriting of article L 225-1 of the prison code which concerns strip searches prisoners with the ambition to allow more, even if the European Court of Human Rights has emphasized Many times their humiliating nature. The organizations signing the letter to the minister are also concerned about recent cancellations of sporting or cultural activities in prison. Me Stéphane Maugendre, from the French lawyers’ union, denounces a “collective punishment”. “There was this tragedy, these terrible acts committed by a few, and we are going, in response, to punish all the detaineeshe denounces. The answer is only security. It’s already very tense in the prisons at the moment. We have never seen such significant overpopulation.” reminds Me Maugendre.

“I don’t hope so, but sometimes it only takes one small thing for things to explode in prisons. I find that here, the Minister of Justice is playing with fire.”

Maître Maugendre, from the French lawyers’ union

at franceinfo

Prison overcrowding reached a new record in France on 1^er May, with 77,647 detainees, a situation pushing 3,405 of them to sleep on a mattress on the ground, according to figures published Friday by the Ministry of Justice.

On the side of the chancellery, we refute the idea of “all safe” and we recall that a broad consultation on the fight against prison overpopulation will begin. “The Minister of Justice is thinking pragmatically to absolutely avoid a new tragedy, while ensuring not to infringe on the rights of defense to which he has always been very attached.”, their services respond to franceinfo. According to them, the thirty or so proposals essentially come from the legitimate demands of those primarily concerned: prison officers.