Lack of hygiene, lack of privacy, cockroaches, bedbugs… The list is long regarding the conditions of detention of detainees in the prisons of Limoges and Saint-Martin-de-Ré, on the Ile de Ré.
Administrative justice therefore orders the prison administration to take emergency measures.
The summary judge had been seized by the Order of Lawyers and the French section of the International Prison Observatory (OIP), after an unannounced visit to the Limoges remand center by the President of the Bar at the beginning of November. He considered that the conditions of detention were “contrary to human dignity“, according to a press release from the city’s administrative court.
Prison overcrowding, lack of partitioning of toilets in cells, lack of maintenance, proliferation of bedbugs, insufficient hygiene of prisoners: so many “serious breach“already reported by the General Controller of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) in 2022 and which have not been corrected since, denounced the Bar Association at the hearing.
Dismissing the requests not falling within his jurisdiction, the judge ordered to issue “without delay” extra coverage to inmates who request it, as long as windows remain broken and expose them to the cold.
The administration must also distribute hygiene kits, as well as maintenance kits, regularly and free of charge to prisoners for the cells.
Injunction is made to him, finally, to insulate toilet spaces by means of a partition or a wooden panel in the cells, in order to protect the privacy of the prisoners.
In service since 1856, the Limoges remand center has a capacity of 83 places and suffers from a “old and significant prison overcrowding“, notes the judge in his decision, with an occupancy rate of 195% on the day of the president’s visit.
Cockroaches and cold showers
In Charente-Maritime, 15 detainees from the central house of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, with the OIP, had taken legal action to denounce a “chronic unsanitary conditions“.
The summary judge of the Administrative Court of Poitiers ordered the prison administration, “as soon as possible“, to strengthen the effectiveness of measures of fight against the presence of cockroaches in buildings and to ensure regulating water temperature in showers.
The administration must alsoput an end to the systematic nature of body searches for prisoners returning from family visiting rooms“, adds the court in a press release.
After a visit to the Île de Ré establishment in September 2021, the CGLPL services pointed out “dilapidated buildings in the confinement areas which continue to deteriorate over time“.
Opened in 1875, this central house for long sentences is the largest in France with a capacity of around 460 places, according to the OIP.
