Pascale Martin shows up at the reception of the Périgueux remand center this Tuesday morning with her tricolor scarf. As a deputy, she can visit prisons and all other places of deprivation of liberty such as psychiatric hospitals. The elected NUPES wishes to make an inventory to see what the living conditions are. She has already come to the remand center in July but this time, she wants to talk to the detainees, visit the infirmary, the disciplinary section but also meet this 80-year-old detainee whose conditions of detention were exposed by the newspaper Sud West.
– Charlotte Jousserand
A prison that is not suitable for the detention of dependent persons
In this prison built in 1863, there is no cell suitable for people with reduced mobility unlike that of Neuvic. The deputy entered the cell of the old man who has difficulty walking to stand. The cell is about 10 square meters. He is sitting on a chair, his two canes are on the bunk bed but he is sleeping on a mattress on the floor because there are three of them in this cell intended for two.
– Charlotte Jousserand
This man has not yet been judged but he was remanded in custody ahead of his trial in early summer. Whatever the reason, the MP wants to know her living conditions “it is extremely cramped, these are unworthy living conditions despite the fact that these people are in a remand center and that they have committed acts reprehensible by law, human dignity is not questionable”.
The man explains to the NUPES deputy that he is helped by his fellow prisoners to go to the toilets which are in the cell. For the shower, “a person from the intercommunal center for social action comes three times a week” explains Arnaud Guillon, the deputy director of the prison, but the shower is in another, recent building, which houses the infirmary and the consultation rooms. It is also there that he is seen by the doctors. A treatment protocol has been put in place. Several requests have been made to nursing homes “a dozen” according to the deputy director but none succeeded.
Record prison overcrowding this summer
The Périgueux remand center is sized to accommodate 99 prisoners, they are 158 currently and this Tuesday, 17 mattresses were installed on the floor. Supervisors keep statistics day by day. Captain Laurent, responsible for the establishment’s infrastructure and security, remembers days when they climbed up to 175 inmates “It was early summer […] all the prisons are overcrowded and we realize that transferring them to detention centers is complicated […] because there are not enough places in French prisons”. The prison has 50 extra mattresses just in case. “but we never want to use these mattresses because for the prisoners it is not a life”.
The MP for Périgueux is not in favor of the construction of new prisons: “confinement is not a solution […] we must find alternatives to small sentences”. Pascale Martin believes that we must rethink society and that the solutions will not be immediate.
– Charlotte Jousserand
While waiting for these solutions, supervisors must adapt to this overcrowding while they are understaffed. Five positions are vacant recalls the deputy director. “We have three vacancies and two of our supervisors are retiring in the next few days and we don’t know when or if they will be replaced as we are not the only ones who need supervisors”. This situation leads to schedule adjustments and overtime for supervisors on duty.
Unsanitary showers and a recent infirmary
In the main building, work is in progress in the shower rooms. The member of the first constituency of the Dordogne notes the progress of the installations. During her first visit on July 15, Pascale Martin had “I was very shocked by these sanitary conditions and the director told me that the works were going to start in the fall but they have already started, that’s already good”. Work will continue on the other two floors.
The “infirmary” of the prison, called “sanitary unit” contrasts with the rest. It was built next to in 2015 and accommodates the consultation rooms for the detainees. Four nurses work here every day, two doctors and a psychologist every day of the week. The dentist comes once a week to treat the prisoners. On the other hand, the psychiatrist only comes once a month because it is difficult for management to find a practitioner who can be there more often.