At the Tarbes remand center, emergency recommendations issued after “physical and psychological violence” reported against detainees

The General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty denounces, following unannounced visits in March to this prison, “numerous dysfunctions leading to serious attacks on the rights of the people detained there”. A judicial investigation is underway, according to the Minister of Justice.

“Blows”, “slaps”, “insults”, “middle fingers”, “threats”, “mockery”… During two unannounced visits, in March, to the Tarbes remand center (Hautes-Pyrénées), five controllers of places of deprivation of liberty collected “multiple concordant and detailed testimonies”who speak “physical and psychological violence” repeatedly committed on detainees by a team of guards. Following this observation, the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL), Dominique Simonnot, issued emergency recommendations on April 10. They are published Thursday June 13 in the Official Journal.

On site, the controllers spoke with more than 50 prisoners, or nearly 40% of them, as well as with numerous professionals, members of the prison administration or not. According to these testimonies, a cell constitutes “the heart of this system of abuses and threats”. “Cell 130 is known to all detainees as the place where they are regularly brutalized and arbitrarily locked up, sometimes for hours,” denounces the CGLPL, which highlights the existence of video surveillance images to support its claims.

Dominique Simonnot also points out “the faulty inertia of management” in front of this situation. “More broadly, the controllers noted a general atmosphere of casualness, even neglect, towards the needs of the detainees,” in this remand center, where one in six prisoners is forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor. Added to this prison overcrowding (203% occupancy in the remand center area on the date of the inspection) is the dilapidation of the cells. Finally, “sometimes there is no way to provide a full meal to all the detainees”, observed the controllers.

In response, the General Controller called on the authorities to put “an end to the violence suffered by detainees as well as the indignity of their conditions of detention”, by proceeding in particular “to a thorough inspection of the establishment”. A request addressed to the Minister of Justice, to which Eric Dupond-Moretti responded on May 7.

In his letter, consulted by franceinfo, the Minister of Justice acknowledges that a detainee was the subject “violence by a member of staff” on March 2. However, according to him, “this serious but exceptional incident should not call into question the general assessment which must be made of the functioning of the establishment”. A judicial investigation and a disciplinary procedure are underway, announces Eric Dupond-Moretti.

Furthermore, the minister specifies that a cell renovation plan has been launched in the establishment. As for prison catering, it was the subject of an audit and then an action plan in October 2023. “No request or report has been made by the penal population concerning the quantities of meals”, underlines Eric Dupond-Moretti, who assures that “the quantity of food served meets the requirements”.