Plunged into the heart of the only prison located in intramural Paris, alongside the president of Paris Julie Couturier and PS senator Rémi Féraud, who exercised their “right of visit”.
Despite a major renovation project, the occupancy rate of the prison of Health exceeds 163% with 1153 prisoners for 708 places. Nationally, the number of prisoners reached a record level in France, exceeding 70,000 for 60,000 places.
>> Is it true that four out of ten convicts never go behind bars?
“Can I know what’s going on?” The director of the prison, Bruno Clément-Petremann is caught off guard. He was not informed of the visit of the delegation, made up of the president of Paris Maitre Julie Couturier, his vice-president, members of the commission for the control of places of deprivation of liberty, accompanied by the senator of Paris Remi Féraud ( PS). However, he agrees to lead the visit: “A north wing, a south wing and each time, a promenade courtyard serving each of the wings.
/2023/02/27/63fc435712168_20230223-151546.jpg)
“At night, he doesn’t dare go downstairs to go to the toilet, because he will step on his colleague”
“We are going to see a normal passageway, a cell in which there is a mattress”, he indicates. Direction QH5, the district of the defendants, those who have not yet been judged. The supervisor opens the door of a cell. They are three prisoners to live here, in nine square meters. A bunk bed, a mattress on the floor, a shower and a toilet. “They say it’s difficult, they are tight”, recounts the president of Paris Julie Couturier, who has just spoken to them behind closed doors.
“The one above often says that at night he doesn’t dare go downstairs to go to the bathroom, because he will step on his colleaguelaments Bruno Clément-Petremann. The consequence is 113 mattresses on the floor. I alert the Parisian judicial authorities who also have their constraints, there is a criminal policy, a public opinion which has a thirst for sanctions, but it must be understood that we can no longer manage “.
“There are tensions everywhere, fights in the cellcontinues the QH5 building assistant, in supervisor’s uniform. When they are locked up 22 hours a day, it automatically generates tension”. This violence had disappeared during confinement with only 580 detainees, twice less than today. “We lived in paradise, a magical moment for the prisoners as for us”dares the director.
