The Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti assured Thursday that he wanted to lift the “reluctance” of companies to work in prison and expressed the wish that one in two prisoners have a job, against only a third currently.
“There is some reluctance (…) There are people who do not want to employ former detainees or detainees, we hear that. But we are in the process of changing the paradigm, ”said the minister while visiting the detention center in Melun (Seine-et-Marne), which notably houses a computer coding workshop and a vast printing press for administrative documents.
According to the Keeper of the Seals, work in prison is “win, win, win”. It allows “to avoid recidivism” by offering prisoners “a diploma, a job, a desire to work”, assured the minister, who received at the Chancellery in the morning about fifteen business leaders.
According to the minister, prisoners also represent, for companies, cheap labor that can be mobilized on “very high-tech” missions. “We do everything in prison,” he insisted.
In order to facilitate work in prison, Mr. Dupond-Moretti had a prison code adopted, which came into force on May 1, which created a work contract governing the employment of prisoners and fixing their remuneration at 45% of the minimum wage. .
According to official figures, only 32% of the more than 70,000 prisoners in France were employed in 2022, a rate up by 4 points compared to 2020.
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While welcoming this progress, Mr. Dupond-Moretti judged that it was “not sufficient”. “In the 2000s, there were 50% of prisoners who worked (…) I want to find this 50%, I would even like to go beyond,” he said.
The ministry now wants to appoint regional delegates of the Prison Administration (AP) responsible for promoting to companies the advantages of employing prisoners (reduction of charges, privileged access to certain public orders, etc.).
On a website dedicated to this activity (travail-prison.fr), the administration is already highlighting the “controlled costs” of work in prison and ensures that the administrative procedures for using it are “reduced”.