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In prison, concern is growing as the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, which is expected to generate more crime and therefore more prisoners. Franceinfo was able to visit the Nanterre detention center in Hauts-de-Seine.
Freshly re-elected to the National Assembly, the Hauts-de-Seine MP, Pierre Cazeneuve (Renaissance) came to exercise his right of visit, accompanied by the vice-president of the Nanterre Bar, Fabien Arakelian. In the Nanterre penitentiary center, in Hauts-de-Seine, the occupancy rate already exceeds 180%.
A surprise visit to see the conditions of detention in this overcrowded prison. As soon as you enter, there are many rats swarming in the outside courtyard. The elected official, accompanied by the director, moves from cell to cell in the long corridors with worn walls. “What party are you from?”asks a prisoner to the elected official. “The President’s”replies Pierre Cazeneuve.
“Look, sir, at our conditions of detention, there are pet rats in the yard and cockroaches on the ground.”
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Sometimes up to five inmates sleep in the same cell, mattresses on the floor. They have placed a fan at the window facing outside to expel the stale air from inside. “It’s a bit of air. In some cells, they all smoke. It’s hard being in such close proximity, sharing toilets, when we sometimes spend 28 hours locked up on top of each other before the next time we go out into the yard.”testifies a prisoner. “There is no room to move around, there is no air flow,” he laments.
“It’s difficult for us, and even for the prison staff, they have more work managing cells of three.”laments this other prisoner.
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The prisoners were informed of the risks of overcrowding with the Olympics. “With the Games, it seems that all the people who are outside and who could cause trouble, we put them here”fears a prisoner. One of the prison’s chief brigadiers says she is working in increasingly difficult conditions. “We have a lot of prisoners with psychiatric profiles (15% of the prison population compared to 3% in the population) that we have to manage and who are alone in their cells.”
“Here, we have a very high occupancy rate, it’s the first time I’ve seen that in Nanterre. In our building, we have 33 mattresses on the floor, that’s a lot,” she denounces. “Luckily it’s not hot at the moment.”
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As he leaves, Fabien Arakelian, the vice-president of the Hauts-de-Seine bar, has difficulty hiding his anger. He says he is very concerned: “You can’t come out of such a visit unscathed. The last one was four months ago and I thought we had already hit rock bottom, but now we are below rock bottom, with 1,085 prisoners for 592 theoretical places and undignified detention conditions.”
For the Hauts-de-Seine MP, Pierre Cazeneuve, “It is important to keep in mind that the primary role of prison is reintegration.” The elected official also brings his “support for prison administration officers”, particularly after the attack on a van at the Incarville toll booth in Eure, which left two guards dead and three injured.
“We owe them additional resources, prison places, and we must continue to think about adjusting sentences and alternative measures to pure and simple detention. The aim is that people who come here never come back.” A situation that is also deplored by the director of the Hauts-de-Seine penitentiary center, who assures that he is doing what he can with the resources given to him.