PortraitThis manager of an SME in Yvelines recruited two inmates. He was enthusiastic about this initiative, which requires patience and understanding. Eric Dupond-Moretti’s bill, examined in the Assembly from May 17, intends to develop a practice that is still not widespread.
“You will never guess what I did today. I hired Jesus! “ Clémence Guillet is still having fun with her father’s cheerful tone, this evening in September 2019. 54-year-old entrepreneur and practicing Catholic, Pierre Guillet then returns from his small gas detection equipment company in Achères, in the Yvelines. In the morning, he made a detour to the neighboring prison of Poissy, where nearly 200 inmates live, sentenced to more than fifteen years in prison. He decided to recruit one of them to join Hesion, his company of 35 employees. The leader chose a 59-year-old man, long hair, a thick beard and a t-shirt flocked to the slogan “I am innocent”. An inmate that everyone nicknames “Jesus”.
“The employees are cash, some told me: ‘I do not see why we take care of these people, if they are in prison, it is because they deserved it” “
A receding hairline and a broad smile, Pierre Guillet discovered the prison world thanks to an entrepreneur friend. In June 2019, Didier Jodocius took him on a first visit to the Poissy plant, where he employed two inmates in his rubber manufacturing workshop. “I had spoken to Pierre about it, because he has very strong humanist values, he explains. As a boss, we both have immense power to act. ” He emerges from this visit convinced, determined to imitate him.
But the project will be more complicated than expected. A few days later, Pierre Guillet presented his idea to his employees. Their first reactions are negative. “Employees are cash, says the boss, some said to me: “I don’t see why we take care of these people, if they are in prison, it is because they deserve it.” “ Pierre Guillet commits despite everything.
Crazy about DIY and sentenced to life imprisonment
Hiring inmates is not a very popular practice in the corporate world. Only 28.5% of prisoners have a job. A part of the bill “for confidence in the judicial institution” of the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, examined in the National Assembly from May 17, intends to develop and supervise the work in detention. Among other things, it provides for the opening up of unemployment insurance and retirement rights for these detained persons.
On the employers’ side, the approach is frightening. From Pierre Guillet’s first visit to the Poissy prison, the deputy director, Isabelle Lorentz, wanted to reassure him. She knows that working in prison, “It is little known and it is scary, we quickly imagine the big tattooed arms, all in orange, which grow from the cast iron bawling, but it is far from reality”.
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