prison officers worried by death threats targeting Baumettes staff

The “contract”, issued by an inmate, targeting a manager of the Marseille Baumettes prison, constitutes unprecedented death threats against prison staff. The FO-Justice union representative at the detention center alerted to the situation.

Two armed and hooded individuals were arrested on the night of December 1 in Marseille. They were near the home of a prison officer from Baumettes prison, who had been threatened with death for several days. The detainee behind the “contract”, suspected of belonging to the DZ Mafia, was placed in police custody.

In a press release, FO-Justice, deplores a “unprecedented threshold”crossed with this “contract for assassination” targeting a Baumettes executive, posted on social networks. The union, majority in the Paca region, points to an incident “of exceptional gravity“, which constitutes “a real declaration of war against prison staff“A fortiori at the Baumettes prison, already under the influence of drug traffickers who make the law.

Catherine Forzi has been a supervisor for 21 years, today an FO-Justice union delegate at Baumettes prison. After a detour through mass distribution and metallurgy, she says she “passed the competition“out of necessity and for job security.”Those who tell you that they become prison officers by vocation, that is not true “, says the fifty-year-old. But today, job security resonates in a completely different way. Incidents against supervisors multiply and are repeated, soon becoming a habit.

In July 2024, a guard at Aix-Luynes prison was violently attacked by three individuals as she returned home at the end of her shift. In June, a 19-year-old young man was paid 5,000 euros by a prisoner to burn down the vehicle of a guard at the Aix-en-Provence prison. Last September, a fire was reported outside the front door of an agent's home in “the residence which is located above Les Baumettes, everyone knows that it is prison guards who live there”specifies Catherine Forzi.

But with this “contract” affair, the head of a staff set a price of 120,000 euros, she said, “we have never experienced anything so serious. There, they really gain power, the young thugs, have no more limits and no more rules“.

So, on this Thursday, December 5, a day of national mobilization, there is no question of organizing a demonstration in front of the entrance to the Marseille penitentiary center. At the risk of exposing staff:We are not here inside a prison estate, as exists elsewhere, with parking for staff“, explains Catherine Forzi, “here the agents, at the end of their shift, find themselves in the street, in the middle of the city. With this “contract”, we are not safe, given the amount that was offered, from someone coming and shooting on sight, seeing guards grouped together.”

The prison officer covered by the contract wants to talk about it as little as possible. He doesn't want his children to be impacted, his wife is very bad. He is under police protection.

Catherine Forzi, FO-Justice Marseille union delegate

France 3 Provence-Alpes

In the corridors, insults and threats are part of everyday life. The guards lack the staff to carry out the daily searches required by the Ministry, given the increase in cell phones in prison. And then, “the inmates are fed up with being searched every day, they are rebelling“, continues the trade unionist. In any case,“telephones are not detected at the gates and can be brought into a visiting room” and staff are missing to carry out checks. As for reporting incidents, they give up in the face of far too time-consuming paperwork. Difficult in these conditions, to “take back the reins, the thugs have taken over us. And they will stop at nothing”.

For his union, there is no doubt that this lack of human and administrative resources further weakens the guards in the face of prison overcrowding within the Marseille establishment: “424 prison officers facing 1127 inmates, with an occupancy rate of 188%“, summarizes Catherine Forzi. The prison world, it is true, does not make you dream, struggles to recruit and retain its agents, “even if salaries have increased a little with the move to category B“.

But for Catherine Forzi, the hierarchy bears its share of responsibility. “She listens to the words of the detainees before that of the agents and in the event of an attack, she asks to see the videos“. A lack of support and legitimization which encourages “the temptation to give up. Also singled out are magistrates and judges who dismiss incident reports without further action,”which makes the inmates laugh in our faces“.

Discredited and disarmed in the face of a situation that escapes them, the Baumettes prison officers are, according to the head of FO-Justice, very affected by this latest publicized episode. But “they fear that it will quickly be forgotten, because the penitentiary centers, whatever happens, must continue to operate“.