“There are not enough community service sentences (TIG) imposed. This must become a reference sentence. Not all crimes can be treated by TIG, but when they correspond to small firm sentences and the convicted person agrees, it is a more appropriate alternative than incarceration. It is a lever for integration when we know that the success rates of TIG are 85%“, summarizes Nacéra Bensaïd territorial referent in Seine-Saint-Denis of ATIGIP, the Territorial Agency for work of general interest and professional integration.
“There are not enough TIG positions for the entire territory“
Nacéra Bensaïd organized this Thursday morning, at the headquarters of the Est Ensemble intercommunality, in Romainville, the first “TIG Factory” in Seine-Saint-Denis. “The idea is to bring together our partners who provide TIG positions and to meet others. There are not enough positions for the entire territory. For someone who is convicted, being forced to go to the other end of the department can hamper the application of the sentence. We also seek to diversify positions to increase the chances of integration.“, she emphasizes.
Seine-Saint-Denis has, in fact, 325 TIG positions, including 238 intended for convicted adults reporting to the Probation and Professional Integration Service (Spip) and 87 for minors dependent on the Judicial Youth Protection (PJJ). ). A figure which is not up to par, while the sentencing jurisdiction has entrusted 5,150 people to Spip 93 in 2024. The TIG measures represent 513 files. Nationally, only 3.5% of sentences handed down are TIG sentences, according to national data from the Department of Justice.
“The bet is to offer the offender to make amends by repairing the damage caused by the offense committed.“
However, as Hervé Monnet, director of SPIP 93, recalls, the TIG penalty was established by a law of 1983, inspired by the Anglo-Saxon model. This is aimed at “in priority to first-time offenders, in order to work differently on preventing recidivism. The bet is to offer the offender compensation by repairing indirectly and sometimes directly the damage caused by the offense committed.“, he describes. Agetip will be created in 2018 in a context of prison overcrowding, with the observation that sentence adjustments limit recidivism, in comparison with short releases after prison which lead to a recidivism rate of 60%.
In practice, the TIG is a sentence which can be imposed as a principal measure, but also as part of a probationary suspension or as a modification of the sentence. In terms of working hours, the sentence can range from 20 hours to 400 hours since 2019 (instead of 200 hours previously). An extension “to emphasize that TIG is not only intended for small shoplifting offenses, but may also be possible for larger offenses. In order to avoid incarceration when we can set foot in the stirrup of a person“, specifies Muriel Eglin, children’s judge at the Bobigny judicial court, who came to testify about her experience in front of an audience of elected officials and representatives of associations. In fact, on average, 100 hours of TIG are performed. “Beyond 40 hours, it’s complicated. In the context of a TIG, this represents a duration of two weeks, or even more if it is split. If it’s too long and too cumbersome, we end up losing the meaning of the work and putting the convicted persons at risk of not making it to the end and being revoked as a result. We want it to work. When we impose a TIG sentence, we are very careful not to send people to failure“, however, underlines Muriel Eglin. Note that a majority of young convicts are adults at the time of sentencing or execution, with the juvenile court issuing TIGs for people who were minors at the time of the offenses.
“Thanks to TIG we can be in a positive spiral“
The lack of positions nevertheless hampers the development of TIG. “We must also preach the good word to magistrates. Some people say that there are not enough TIG positions and are hesitant to impose a TIG sentence for fear that it will not be carried out. We have positions. It’s a whole loop that needs to be broken“, underlines Nacéra Bensaïd.
A position that Muriel Eglin defends. “Incarceration has a retributive value when someone has committed an offense. Society expects him to pay for the offense committed. The TIG makes it possible to transform this notion, particularly in a territorial context where the Villepinte remand center is currently more than 200% full.“, she explains. While the prison’s reintegration capacities are already relatively limited, “TIG allows us to take the question of conviction from another angle, and to allow a convicted person to pay his debt to society by producing something for his fellow citizens. Thanks to TIG, we can be in a positive spiral of insertion“, she explains.
For Muriel Eglin, this sanction also aims to reconnect the condemned to their citizenship. “Young people who are sentenced by the juvenile court often have a complicated relationship with institutions. It is they who we see committing damage, and who do not even have the idea of what an associative project or the missions of a local authority can be. The TIG is also an opportunity to feel like a citizen. It is certainly a punishment, but the TIG is also part of the educational dimension of juvenile justice“, considers the judge. “We have to come into the field to realize the idleness of certain young people, who are TIG or not left completely alone and abandoned,” observes, for her part, Lynda Mechat of the BNR association in Bobigny which is precisely active in professional and social integration, and who is interested in obtaining approval to accompany TIG sentences. The fact remains that there is a big difference between justice for minors and those for adults in terms of support. A PJJ educator supports around 25 young people while prison integration counselors follow 85-90 people in an open environment.
Est Ensemble wants to welcome more “tigistes”
On the occasion of this first “TIG Factory” in Seine-Saint-Denis, Est Ensemble announced that it wanted to increase its “tigistes” positions from 2025. 132 are currently to be carried out by Spip on the Est Ensemble territory where seven municipalities welcome “tigistes” with an offer of 30 positions. “We decided to expand the system. We have already identified public facilities in the area which will be able to accommodate new TIG stations.“, says Richard Galera, vice-president in charge of youth and higher education. The positions concern the water and sanitation sector, the waste sector, and leisure (projectionist, receptionist at the cinema, at the conservatory or in media libraries).
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