Prison overcrowding is causing great concern among inmates in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The government was then pushed to take unprecedented measures to preserve the health and lives of prisoners.
The current health crisis due to the coronavirus is also changing the daily lives of prisoners. Faced with the fear of contagion, tension mounts in French remand centers. Almost 60% of prisoners incarcerate their cell with other prisoners because the majority of penitentiary centers have an average occupancy rate representing 138% of their capacity.
So far, only one detainee has been identified as positive for the coronavirus. The 74-year-old man, imprisoned in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne), died on Monday, March 16. If for the moment no other case has been identified among prisoners, there would be 17 confirmed cases among staff and outside workers.
Morgane Le Hir, lawyer at the Paris bar, fears that the overcrowding of French prisons could "danger to prisoners' lives"She admits to the newspaper The world than "the prison administration will not be able to stem the virus, for lack of means too, the balance sheet will increase from hour to hour."
Rights Defender Jacques Toubon has sent a letter to the Minister of Justice in which he affirms that the current health crisis presents a risk of attack on the prisoners' right to health and life. Exceptional measures have already been taken in other countries. In Spain, for example, prisoners already receiving sentencing arrangements will sleep at home. Jacques Toubon thus claims alternatives to incarceration such as release under judicial supervision or the suspension of medical sentences.
Exceptional measures
This Thursday, March 19, Jacques Toubon effectively called on the government to take measures to reduce "prison overcrowding"in the French penitentiary centers which "increases the risk of contamination"by the Covid-19 virus. In his official letter, he encourages Nicole Belloubet to encourage as much as possible "release under judicial supervision" detainees who have not yet been tried. It also calls for accommodation or early release for those incarcerated at the end of their sentence, as well as a suspension of sentences for medical reasons in favor of the most vulnerable prisoners.
In a statement, the Keeper of the Seals said that "lhe regulation of the occupation of remand centers is (…) a priority during this period. The measures have already been followed up: in recent days there have been around thirty admissions to prison, compared to more than two hundred usually". It asked the courts to"postpone the execution of short prison terms ".
Fear of mutiny
Following the entry into force of containment on Tuesday, March 17, visits to detainees have been suspended. The atmosphere then became even more electric. This makes fear of an uprising of prisoners in the various French prisons.
On Thursday, a mutiny at Argentan prison (Orne) necessitated the intervention of the elite intervention force of the prison administration (Eris). About fifteen rebel prisoners went up to the roof of the prison and refused to leave it. A similar scene took place at the prison in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes). The prisoners rebelled for almost four hours. This is particularly reminiscent of the violence in Italian prisons, which occurred recently in a similar climate.
Jacques Toubon asked the use of means of distance communication to maintain contact between detainees and their relatives during the health crisis.
Nicole Belloubet, in turn, announced compensatory measures to ease tensions. Each prisoner will benefit from free television and a telephone credit of 40 euros per month. The most deprived will be entitled to financial assistance. In addition, the Minister of Justice plans to send 100,000 masks to reassure prison staff.
Coronavirus. SPA shelters close to the public, a wave of abandonments expected
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