“We must change the image of the prison” to encourage companies to hire prisoners for the duration of their detention, estimates the lawyer Matthieu Quinquis, president of the French section of the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP), Thursday August 31 on franceinfo.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupont-Moretti, received representatives of around twenty companies, such as Hermès, L’Oréal, Decathlon and Auchan on Thursday morning to convince them to resort to work in prison. He wants to promote the prison employment contract, a device that came into force last May to facilitate reintegration.
franceinfo: Why is this prison employment contract struggling to exist?
Matthew Quinquis: It is very complicated for detainees to access a job in prison. This is particularly linked to the lack of job offers. In the early 2000s, half of prisoners had access to a professional activity in prison. Today, we are around 30%. There has been a worrying decline which necessarily has consequences on the favorable possibilities of reintegration.
How is this decline in employment in prison explained?
It is linked to working conditions which do not always satisfy companies when they hire inmates. However, they remain largely derogatory with respect to the common law to which all employees in France are subject and from which they benefit. Detained workers are excluded from labor law as we know it. They have a salary that is well below the minimum wage. They have contract and dismissal terms that are also facilitated. The difficulties that we are experiencing today, I believe that they do not come from a lack of will on the part of detainees to work.
So what’s still holding businesses back?
I do not know. In reality, it is true that the Ministry of Justice, by denying a certain number of rights to detainees, creates the conditions for companies to follow and establish themselves in prison. I don’t understand today why it can’t work. There is undoubtedly the weight of the image of the prison, which remains difficult to value for companies. However, many companies in France, major brands, including luxury groups, employ prisoners. But they do not display it, do not claim it. It is also the image of the prison, the image of the detainees that must be worked on and changed.
Does the prison employment contract improve working conditions?
It is a step forward because it effectively frames and sets recruitment and dismissal procedures, what is called “downgrading” in detention, which did not exist before. Unfortunately, it remains fragile in many aspects. I mentioned the question of compensation. We can also mention the absence of consideration of occupational diseases, the absence of paid leave, the absence of compensation in the face of technical unemployment. There are still a certain number of rights, which detainees do not benefit from unless we really understand and grasp the justification of the Ministry of Justice. The work there remains, in reality, thought of as an infra-disciplinary instrument.