The Comptroller noted “unworthy conditions of detention” there. At the time of the check, the remand center had 867 prisoners for 530 theoretical places.
SourceAFP
© ALAIN JULIEN / AFP
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Lhe remand center in Bois-d’Arcy (Yvelines) is “overcrowded”, according to the Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL), who issued emergency recommendations on Friday. Among them: “suspend incarcerations”. The CGLPL explains that it observed on the spot in mid-September “unworthy conditions of detention”, in particular an occupancy rate of 165% and a “general disorganization of detention” which did not make it possible “to guarantee neither the safety of the people imprisoned nor that of the people who work in the penitentiary centre”.
In this rare recommendation, the Comptroller of Prisons considers it “necessary” to “suspend incarceration until a general inspection of justice confirms that the security of the detainees is ensured […] and that their working conditions allow supervisors to carry out all of their missions”. At the time of the check, the remand center had 867 detainees for 530 theoretical places. “466 detainees are accommodated in pairs in individual cells, 201 detainees are accommodated in threes, still in individual cells,” according to the CGLPL.
In response, the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, sent several “observations” to the Controller of Prisons in a letter dated November 30 in which he described the prison overcrowding in Bois-d’Arcy as “worrying”. “Letters are regularly written by the interregional director (of prison services) to the attention of the Paris Court of Appeal and that of Versailles in order to highlight this worrying situation. A new letter will soon be sent on this subject”, he writes in this document also published in the Official Journal.
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A worrying record number of detainees
At the end of November, the number of detainees in France reached a new absolute record at 72,809 people, for 60,698 operational places. In addition to the suspension of incarceration, the Comptroller of Prisons recommends guaranteeing prisoners “respect for their health and physical integrity”, particularly in the face of the risk of fire, as well as access in their cell to “a hot plate, refrigerator and hot water. Photographs of the CGLPL consulted by Agence France-Presse show “heating” devices installed in the cell, cobbled together using cans and handkerchiefs soaked in oil.
An electrical renovation operation, “currently in the works phase” and due to be completed in 2024, “will make it possible to respond to all of these recommendations”, according to the Keeper of the Seals. Contacted by AFP, the management of the establishment did not react immediately.
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