At the Nîmes remand center, an unprecedented strike by around a hundred inmates against detention conditions

PRISON – A rare protest movement. This Saturday, September 28, around 3:30 p.m. and until around 8 p.m., around a hundred inmates from the Nîmes remand center refused to return to their cells after a walk. They denounce their condition of confinement, report our colleagues from Free Midday.

In a press release, the prison union UFAP Unsa deplores the cramped cells where prisoners are crowded together. This remand center houses 476 inmates for 200 places.

Lack of beds, « 102 mattresses [sont] on the ground in the men’s quarter, i.e. 267% overcrowding”, protested a member of the union to France 3, who also expressed “ bed bugs and rats in the hallways.

“Deplorable” conditions for supervisors

« Everything stems from overpopulation, lack of hygiene. The situation is toxic, no longer viable,” deplores another member of Ufap, David Dehaye, who believes in the columns of Free Midday that the protest was predictable.

If the inmates are angry, the guards also break down. “ In Nimes, it’s a never-ending story that repeats itself and it’s always the field staff who toil in deplorable conditions”still castigates David Dehaye. On weekends, only around ten agents work.

The regional intervention and security teams from Toulouse and Marseille intervened during the day to try to dialogue with the detainees, who finally completed their mobilization “peacefully” around 8 p.m., continues Free Midday.

This strike is a reflection of a more global problem in France. The overall prison density in France stands at 126.4%. But in remand centers, where prisoners awaiting trial and therefore presumed innocent, and those sentenced to short sentences are incarcerated, it reaches 151.6%.

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