“This colleague could very well have been killed. Obviously, this is an affair that will mark the staff. I am not sure that in the next few days there will be many volunteers to escort a detainee to the hospital ”, says Philippe Kuhn, deputy national secretary of the Prison Supervisors Union (SPS). “This case clearly shows the vulnerability of the escorts who accompany detainees to a place of care. Without weapons, you are very exposed ”, adds Samuel Gauthier, General Secretary CGT Pénitentiaire.
The unions of prison guards do not hide their emotion after the spectacular escape, Tuesday, December 21 in the evening, of an inmate incarcerated from the Osny remand center (Val-d’Oise). The 28-year-old man began by mutilating himself in his cell. “The firefighters were called and decided that it was better to take him to the hospital”, specifies Philippe Kuhn. Three prison officers then accompanied the detainee to the Pontoise hospital. In the parking lot, a woman was waiting for them, armed with a rifle, pump or hunting, according to the first elements of the investigation.
→ READ. The “prison shock”, a high risk moment
This woman asked thatthe detainee was detached and then shot one of the officials. “The colleague was fortunately protected by his bulletproof vest but still received pellets in the lower back”, considers Philippe Kuhn. The woman, the detainee and a third man who was on watch then fled together in a car. The escapee, from the community of Travelers, is suspected of having killed a young man of 18 on the night of September 28 to 29 in Valenton (Val-de-Marne).
Different security levels
Before any transfer, a detainee who complains of medical symptoms is seen either by the fire brigade, the Samu or SOS doctors. “They are the ones who judge whether the person should be taken to the hospital or not. But since no one wants to take any risk, transfers are frequent ”, says Flavie Rault, general secretary of the National Union of Prison Directors. The problem, as this escape reveals, is securing transport. “The escort is very weak because it finds itself on the public highway without a weapon. And in a hospital, the risk of ambush is real ”, says Samuel Gauthier. He explains that the level of security is not the same for a detainee taken to court and a detainee accompanied to the hospital.
In the first case, the transfer is carried out by agents from a regional judicial extraction center (PREJ) who have all received training and are armed. This is not the case for the escorts to the hospital. “The importance of the escort depends on the level of dangerousness of the detainee. Usually, we send two officers and one officer. The detainee must really be flagged as very dangerous or be incarcerated for terrorism to get the police to accompany the convoy. », Underlines Flavie Rault. “As a result, in detention, everyone understood that if you want to try something, it is rather in the hospital that you have to do it”, assures Samuel Gauthier.
Eight escapes in 2021
Faced with this problem, a 2019 circular provides for the deployment of local prison security teams (ELSPs) to secure medical extractions. “But these teams arrive on the ground in a trickle”, assures Samuel Gauthier. “This deployment involves training and empowering officers in each establishment to carry a weapon. These demanding training courses, which can only be provided face-to-face, have been slowed down by the health crisis but must be accelerated in 2022 ”, one indicates to the ministry of justice, while specifying that 519 prison staff are today authorized to carry weapons and distributed in 51 ELSP.
→ ANALYSIS. Three detainees released for lack of escort to go to court
According to the Chancellery, there were 8 and 2 escapes in 2019 and 2020, for respectively 69,237 and 54,371 medical extractions. This year, 8 escapes, including that of yesterday, took place. “In the past 3 years, only one of these escapes has occurred with an outside complicity. The most classic scenario is that of the detainee’s flight “, specifies the ministry, while the unions believe that this escape also poses the problem of the circulation of cell phones in prison. “Because it is obvious that this detainee warned his accomplices that he was going to be taken to hospital”, says Philippe Kuhn.
– .
