The situation linked to overcrowding with dozens of marelas on the ground is explosive in prison. Drugs and knives come into custody. Updates in Nîmes, Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, Béziers and Perpignan.
“We are counting the empty mattresses on the ground, we are in agony! The government does not understand the danger, we will end up with prisons on fire and it will cost twice as much”warns Johann Reig, Occitanie Ufap-Unsa justice delegate. Will prisons implode? State of play.
In Nimes, “there are great tensions, the prisoners have to live in threes in 9 m2, it's Tetris! This prison is old, humid, very hot in summer, freezing in winter. And only a few cells are equipped with showers , for the others, prisoners are only allowed three showers per week.describes David Dehaye, Ufap-Unsa local secretary.
He evokes the clash of clans against a backdrop of drug trafficking which adds violence: “The turf wars from outside, we find them here, between the districts, Zup, Chemin-Bas, Mas de Mingue.”
In Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, near Montpellier, known as “VLM” with more than 1000 prisoners, the structural lack of staff is glaring.
Rats and bedbugs
“Recently, a colleague was punched because of the mattresses on the floor… There is promiscuity, but also rats, cockroaches, bedbugs… At VLM, there are 115 to 120 inmates per floor for a supervisor”deplores Marine Orengo, supervisor and local secretary Ufap-Unsa.
The tension is palpable: at the end of October, an inmate was seriously injured by a ceramic knife in the stomach. This weapon was delivered by drone, used to counter the anti-spray nets installed a year ago to stop packages thrown from the road.
“The nets have limited manual projections, but the inmates have adapted with the drones. Everything fits, like the big hookahs and we have a lot of “ceramics”, just last week, we recovered three of them, one of which had a 13 cm bladeworries Marine Orengo.
In Béziers, 124 mattresses on the ground, David Parmentier, supervisor, Ufap-Unsa, is counting, without really believing it, on the drone jammers expected at the end of the year.
“Every evening, it's the ballet of drones, in Béziers, we are an Amazon logistics platform… In the same cell, you seize 15 cell phones, 500 g of shit and the next day, you find the same quantities… It's exponential”he explains. “But they also have kebabs and burgers delivered! When you smoke your weed, you play on the console and you eat McDonald's, the sentences of two years in prison, they do them without any problem! It makes you smile, but a lot of ceramics are spinning .”
“The shit is profitable like in the neighborhood, there is the one who sells, watches or serves as nanny”
He describes how the business is set up: “The shit brings in money like in the neighborhood. There is the one who receives, who sells, watches over or serves as nurse.”
And then David Parmentier highlights another big concern: “30% of prisoners suffer from psychiatric problems, a prison place costs less than a hospital place.”
Finally, in Perpignan, the bedbug invasion is dramatic: “A hundred showers are infected, it’s hellish”breathes Pierre Grousset, supervisor and trade unionist. There, the anti-drone system is only partially effective. “We have just intercepted two. In one package, we found shisha tobacco, 300 g of cannabis and 21 g of coke.”
“Corruption, I vomit it”
He evokes the respect for the uniform which is being lost: “A resident returning from leave, drunk, threatened a colleague: “I’m going to take care of you”, and then he wanted to go back outside!”
These guardians also examine their consciences. “I hate corruption. We know that it's happening in all the prisons, but if we want to stop it, we need decent salaries and install cell phone jammers. Some people do it to supplement their income, but It’s also linked to intimidation.”estimates Yohann Reig.
“The more prisons we build, the more we incarcerate”: the question of reintegration under debate
The Minister of Justice Didier Migaud announced on Wednesday an emergency mission to reflect on integration and alternative measures to incarceration “for low-serious offenses”indicates the ministry.
Because detention remains a sanction, not a purpose.
“Studies show that recidivism after a first incarceration is high, more than 30%, prison leads to recidivism”deplores Me Paul Gallix, criminal lawyer in Montpellier, who cites the example of Scandinavian countries: “There are alternative sentences, community service, reintegration. In Denmark, at the end of a long sentence, prisoners go to market gardening, fishing, breeding… In France, we are late.”
He recalls the consequences of overpopulation: “The meaning of the sentence is that after the sanction, there must be reintegration, but it goes by the wayside. There, the prisons are pressure cookers, we seek social peace, we turn a blind eye on traffic, we leave the smartphones”he analyzes.
“But it's a cover-up, many of my clients will wait five days for a toothache, three months to see a psychiatrist, the waiting lists for work are enormous…Yes, we must lock up to protect society in the most serious cases, but building prison places does not solve the problem.”
An opinion shared by David Dehaye, supervisor and trade unionist at Nîmes prison: “The more prisons we build, the more we incarcerate and when we see pregnant women who are detained for three months or people eight years after the events, what is the meaning of the sentence?”
