The Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, launched an inspection mission on Friday August 21 to strengthen the prevention of suicide in prison and clarify the circumstances in which a detainee from Les Baumettes, a former teacher, committed suicide in early August , learned Agence France-Presse from the Ministry of Justice.
In 2019, 128 prisoners committed suicide, three fewer than in 2018, according to the management of the prison administration. Between the 1is January and August 17, 82 suicides have already been recorded, against 72 over the same period last year. Among them is a 51-year-old former math teacher, who hanged himself on August 2 in his cell at Baumettes in Marseille. He had been in pre-trial detention for a month.
His trial was postponed for the second time on July 28, because his psychiatric examination had still not been carried out. “My client could not bear to go back to prison”, according to his lawyer, Louise Lanata. The 50-year-old, suffering from depression, was accused of having punctured his physiotherapist’s tires seven times between May and June.
Six times more suicides than in the general population
The inspection carried out by the Minister of Justice should make it possible to understand how this suicide could have taken place when the authorities had been alerted to the risk. This will include seeing if the legal actors, prisons and caregivers have implemented all the tools at their disposal, according to the chancellery. Eric Dupond-Moretti will receive the father of the detainee on Friday afternoon.
Beyond this case, the mission will have to take stock of the progress of the 2019-2022 government plan relating to the health of detainees, which already aims to strengthen suicide prevention actions. The inspection will have to make recommendations. The report of the joint mission of the General Inspectorate of Justice and the General Health Inspectorate must be submitted to the Keeper of the Seals and to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, by 1is December.
Already in 2009, the prison administration adopted a prevention plan, comprising twenty measures. Among them: the support co-detainee system, which provides that a voluntary detainee, who has undergone training, is placed in a cell with a prisoner whose action is feared. According to the International Prison Observatory, prisoners commit suicide six times more than the general population.
–
