The Nîmes transplant center is crumbling, the workers are at their wit’s end

The Nîmes remand center (200 places… and 476 prisoners) is collapsing… And all the staff with it. This Monday, September 23, there were only three cells left in the plan for two that had not yet been tripled. In almost every cell, mattresses on the floor were installed. Yes, mattresses on the floor because there are not enough beds in these 9 m2 cells designed for two prisoners. “We Imprison Too Much”mourning a trade union. “Management is tired” announced this week, David Dehaye (Ufap). We are no longer in control. There we have zero solutions. This is becoming urgent.” On September 22, Ufap announced Unsa Justice “102 mattresses on the floor in the men’s section, ie 267% overcrowding, and 13 mattresses on the floor in the women’s section, ie 270% overcrowding. land that is cultivated in a polluted state.”describing Ufap. And the prisoners “toast too”. How do you prepare a reintegration project or an upcoming appearance, in this context?

Increase in violence

This overpopulation generates, “increase in violence due to detention conditions. The officers are physically assaulted by the detainees who can no longer stand and are locked in groups of three in less than 9 m2.” And prisoners will want to be put in solitary confinement in cells… that are already used!

Let’s be clear, the situation is not better in Perpignan. And the inter-provincial directorate of prison services in Toulouse disgraced, according to our information, 800 mattresses on the ground throughout the area it covers. “It’s huge. We’ve never been this high… There’s too many new people coming in and not enough management. We’re working on it though. We’re doing as much as we can.”trusting one of our observers. In the overcrowded prisons that are responsible for the regional management of Toulouse, the prison management therefore wants more control and appeal to the national management of the prison administration. “There are other interdepartmental directorates that are less dense”supporting a trade union

The prison unions also appeal to magistrates who have the ability to impose alternative sentences. It is still necessary for lawyers to obtain urgently – if they appear immediately for example – certificates of residence or guarantees of employment that hold up.

“Incarceration must be the exception”

“The principle today is to incarcerate, complains Me Khadija Aoudia, president of the Nîme bar. If prisons are overflowing in France, the number of prisoners is decreasing (58,888) in Germany (about 58,000 prisoners for 83 million inhabitants), notes Me Khadija Aoudia.“It is time to think about criminal sanctions in a different way, as neighboring countries must be an exception… continued the lawyer. Some suffer from mental illnesses that require care. Others have been sentenced to prison for past crimes. Here we have all the products that contribute to the renewal of guilt. And the increase in prison violence is staggering. Management can’t take it anymore”, said the lawyer who is in contact with prison staff.