How is the confinement going at the Dijon remand center, a place already very closed in on itself? Like the rest of the population in Côte-d’Or, inmates are subject to new measures, explains Pauline Rossignol, the director of the prison.
Maintenance of visiting rooms
There are currently no cases of coronavirus among the some 200 detainees at the Dijon remand center. Four prison guards are contaminated and the entire prison is subject to new rules since the start of this new confinement. In addition to disinfection measures, a number of activities are suspended: indoor sport, socio-cultural activities, and groupings of prisoners are prohibited. On the other hand, unlike the confinement in March, family ties are maintained, rejoices Pauline Rossignol: “This is surely the most important of all these new measures. Plexiglas have been installed between the detainees and their visitors so that they can continue to see their relatives while respecting the distances. ”
If vocational training is now done remotely, school for minors continues face-to-face and work in workshops continues.
New prisoners are systematically tested
“Anyone detained is systematically tested 7 days after arrival”, details Pauline Rossignol. In the event of a positive test, the detainee is placed in confinement, in a dedicated area of the prison. For prison wardens, screening is done only in case of symptoms and results arrive within 24 hours. Wearing a mask is compulsory for everyone outside the cells.
For court hearings, videoconferences are preferred, but transfers from prison to the judicial district are maintained when it is not possible to do otherwise.
Declining prison population
With 177 adult men currently detained in Dijon remand center, the prison overcrowding rate has reached 161%. It was 204% in March. Pauline Rossignol acknowledges that there have been“exceptional sentence reductions” with the first confinement as well as house arrest. But she prefers to see the effects of the 2018-2022 Justice Programming Law, which allowed “the development of forced releases, the creation of house arrest under electronic surveillance, and a new scale of sentences.”
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