Carcassonne. “We are being talked about opening other structures, but with what budget?”

“Mr. Darmanin is nice, but his announcements leave us perplexed!“This Friday, December 27, the day after the declarations made by the new Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, the local secretary of the FO Justice penitentiary union of the Carcassonne remand center, Yohann Verschelle remains expectant in view of a situation which is only getting worse.

146 detainees and 23 mattresses on the ground

The reality in France today is that there are more than 80,000 prisoners with more than 4,000 mattresses on the floor. In Carcassonne, there are 146 inmates for 64 effective places, with 23 mattresses on the ground. At the Carcassonne remand center, the occupancy rate is more than 220%.

On the subject of short sentences mentioned by the minister, Yohann Verschelle explains that his union had proposed the option of“a classification of establishments in relation to the profile of the prisoners they accommodated”. The idea is not to mix everyone up. “What’s the point of incarcerating a guy for fourteen days?”quips Yohann Verschelle.

A deficit of seven guards at Carcassonne prison.

“We proposed an alternative to prison, with the creation of a prison police force which would be responsible for monitoring incarcerations at home…” But then the question of management arises “staff decline” coming from the year 2025: “There are far too many departures who will not be replaced. Here in Carcassonne, from the month of July, there will be seven departures out of the twenty-four detention officers that we have. We will be suffering, under pressure We don’t know how we’re going to do it!”

On the budget side, Yohann Verschelle recalls that“500 million euros are missing compared to the budget cuts for the implementation of current projects. Mr. Darmanin will have to go get them, or even a little more, to allow us to recruit and create prisons!”

Local representative of the Ufap-Unsa Justice union at the Carcassonne remand center, Pierre Journet could be seduced by the announcements made, “because we are moving towards things that speak to us. Namely, we need to put the house in order! It’s utopian, but it’s the kind of speech we expect from a minister”.

But behind all this, there is the harsh reality with prison overcrowding and the shortage of prison guards: “We are truly in a catastrophic situation. The profession is no longer of interest. This year, we should have recruited 600 supervisors but barely half showed up. We lack staff, resources and places… Mr. Darmanin tells us is talking about opening other structures with already a huge deficit, but with what means and what personnel, knowing that there will be a constrained budget.” On one side or the other, the prison unions do not have too many illusions as the project is colossal.