The day after the hostage taking at the Arles remand center, the FO-Justice union is due to meet the Minister of Justice on Monday and is demanding establishments dedicated to prisoners with psychiatric disorders.
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Friday January 3, for five hours, a prisoner in the central prison in Arles held hostage, under threat of a knife, five then four people, members of the medical and prison teams. It took the intervention of Raid and ERIS, special units of the prison administration, for the inmate to surrender, after five hours of negotiation.long and complicated“, according to the authorities.
The detainee, considered “very dangerous“, has been serving an 18-year sentence since 2015 for rape at gunpoint. Age 37 years old and incarcerated in Arles prison since 2023, this hostage taker made, by threat, the request to change establishment.
In a press release, the Ministry of Justice indicated, on January 3, that “at this stadium”, he didn’t haveno psychiatric profile”, not presenting “no psychosis, no psychotic elements“. On the other hand, the detainee of Guyanese nationality, “fwas the subject of monitoring and medical support in the context of various disorders that may arise during detention“, then indicated the prosecutor.
“The prosecutor is not a psychiatrist“, responds Jessy Zagary, regional spokesperson for the FO-Justice union, who claims to have obtained a completely different opinion from the staff of the Arles central house. Her union organization, which must meet the new guard of Sceaux, Gérald Darmanin, Monday, requests the creation of “classifications of establishments in order to manage prisoners with psychiatric disorders in suitable places“.
“Stabbing attacks, stabbings between inmates, or against guards, it’s a daily occurrence.”explique Jessy Zagary, “prison officers are not trained or equipped with equipment, they are not psychiatric nurses.” The trade unionist claims that these prisoners “aggressive people spoil the sentence of other prisoners and put them in danger”, as well as prison staff.
He also mentions numerous verbal attacks.that have been swept under the rug“and constantly increasing physical attacks on prison officers including”prisons are sorely lacking“.
Jessy Zagary cites the Chateau-Thierry prison in Aisne as a model, alone establishment in France to devote itself, since 1950, to the care of serious psychiatric prisoners and he wonders: “why not multiply this type of establishment, which have trained prison staff working with medical teams” ? The particularity of this prison like no other is its health unit where doctors and psychologists from the psychiatric hospital treat the inmates.
As for the hostage taker from Arles, it is now up to the experts to decide, within the framework of the legal procedure, on the reality of his psychiatric state.
Article written with the collaboration of Adrien Gavazzi, journalist at France 3 Provence-Alpes
