They are only 500 in France. The prison directors of integration and probation (DPIP) want to be heard this Tuesday. Those who manage the penitentiary integration and probation services (SPIP) will demonstrate, for the first time at 1 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Justice. Laura Soudre is the general secretary of the UNDPIP. She practiced for three years, from 2015 to 2018, both as director of Spip d’Evreux in the Eure. She was the guest of France Bleu Normandie, this Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
Before talking about your mobilization which is taking place this Tuesday in Paris. Can you tell us in a few words, what is the mission of the SPIPs in France?
The mission of the penitentiary services for integration and probation is a mission that is relatively unknown. We are responsible, under judicial mandate, to accompany and follow all the people we call placed in the hands of justice. Primarily, the people we follow today are people who have been sentenced by the courts, whether in detention or in an open environment, but we can also be mandated by investigating judges or different judges to follow people prior to their sentencing, for example in the context of a judicial review or in the context of an investigation before the hearing.
This Tuesday, you go to Paris to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Justice at 1 p.m. What do you expect from this mobilization?
This mobilization, it arrives a little at the end of the race, of a fed up of the penitentiary directors of insertion and probation compared to their statute. We depend on a status in particular that was created in 2010, a status that has changed very little, which has seen very small changes in 2019. And today, we are essentially asking for an overall revaluation of our status, that whether on the indemnity component, the index component or the statutory component. And this defense, we do it for the recognition of our management body and by the same for the defense of the SPIP.
Recently, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, announced an increase of €1,000 gross per month for magistrates. Isn’t this the symbol of a prison world that has been somewhat neglected by the State?
We do not wish to enter into an opposition of bodies in relation to announcements on other bodies. Nevertheless, the signal that can be perceived can be a bad signal. This revaluation, it happens for the magistrates, it must be able to happen for all the bodies and including the prison directors of integration and probation to get out of this prison component and also be able to really have the accent on a public policy of integration focused on the open environment. Today, we regret a very high incarceration rate in our prisons.
We recently talked about a controversy in the prison of Fresnes, in the Val de Marne, with in particular this card race organized within the prison itself. It is your role to organize activities for inmates in prison. Doesn’t this controversy serve you a little bit?
Yes, it totally serves us. Of course, our primary mission is the prevention of recidivism by organizing actions within penitentiary establishments. Whether they are cultural, whether they are sporting, whether they are citizens. All these actions, by the fact that they put in group and in collective of the people placed under hand of justice, they make it possible to develop what one calls the social abilities. They make it possible to respect the rules within a group and they therefore participate in the reintegration process. And today, taking the small end of the telescope and suddenly making a buzz out of it, inevitably serves us wrong since we are not talking about the pedagogy of these actions.