Lhe Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, said on Tuesday that the karting race organized at Fresnes prison as part of events inspired by the game show Koh Lanta was an “initiative of the director of the prison with the organizer”. “If I had known that a karting competition was organized, I would have put a very clear veto. (…) I have never been informed”, declared the Minister of Justice to the press, during a visit to the prison of Fleury-Mérogis.
“I’m going to tell you something very simple: for me, prison is punishment and rehabilitation. In these images, there is neither punishment nor reintegration, he added, the prison, it must have a deterrent effect. »
On July 27, an event called “KohLantess”, including karting, mime and tug-of-war events over a swimming pool, took place in a courtyard of the Fresnes prison (Val-de-France). -Marl). The director of the establishment – which had 1,918 inmates for 1,336 places at 1er July – Jimmy Delliste, welcomed on Twitter a “moment of fraternal commitment for the benefit of three associations”, thanking the organizers.
“It was never about karting”
A video of these competitions, broadcast on YouTube on Friday and since removed, provoked outrage from right and far-right figures and led to the launch of an administrative investigation by the Ministry of Justice. “What the ministry knew was that there was a sports competition in which there was never any question of karting”, continued the Keeper of the Seals, during a site visit by the former – center for minors in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne), which will accommodate 400 new adult prisoners by 2023.
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“The minister does not know everything that is going on in detail, it is not his job, the directors have a personal initiative”, insisted Éric Dupond-Moretti. Many sporting or cultural events are regularly organized in prison. In Fresnes, one of the latest was a concert with the Radio France orchestra in which prisoners took part, in addition to football and basketball tournaments and plays.
Conditions for “reintegration projects”
Éric Dupond-Moretti announced Tuesday evening on Twitter the publication of a circular to set “the conditions necessary for carrying out reintegration projects in prison”, now “subject to express validation by the management of the prison administration”.
Following the investigation report, I am going to take out a circular to clearly set out the conditions necessary for the holding of reintegration projects in prison. From now on, they will all have to be subject to the express validation of the management of the prison administration. https://t.co/OqGMZqGKUz
— Eric Dupond-Moretti (@E_DupondM) August 23, 2022
“Following the investigation report, I am going to take out a circular to clearly set out the conditions necessary for carrying out reintegration projects in prison. They will now all have to be subject to express validation by the management of the prison administration, ”wrote the minister on Twitter. According to the report made public on Tuesday evening, the choice of activities was managed “in direct connection between the organizing association and the prison establishment” and “neither the management of the prison administration, nor the office of the Keeper of the Seals had no knowledge of the precise modalities of the activity Kohlanness ».