They have a thread on hand, and other spools in their “little workshop”. Since January, and unless they have an appointment with their lawyer or another administrative obligation, four detainees at the Seysses penitentiary center, near Toulouse, spend part of their Mondays and Tuesdays in front of their machine. to sew. They make T-shirts and tote bags in recycled fabric, stamped Populère, the first French brand of clothing made “from A to Z” in prison, with its “bar code” logo. “They had never sewn, never touched a needle in their life and I am already surprised at their technicality”, confides Mathilde Cervières, the creator of this brand and new enthusiastic boss of these four men “aged 40 to 60”. .
With a professional seamstress, but also her memories of needlework taught to her by her grandmother, the 30-year-old oversees each manufacturing session behind the prison walls. Without being out of place in a prison environment. Because this graduate in clinical psychology but also in criminology, worked for six years as a prison counselor. It is also behind bars that the idea of Populère germinated.
“I was stationed at the Agen remand center in full confinement and I was able to obtain two sewing machines to create a small sewing workshop in the women’s district,” she says. At the time, it was a question of making cuddly toys and make-up remover wipes, but the experience convinced the native of Carcassonne of the usefulness of this derivative. She knows well the issue of recidivism and “the importance that a professional perspective can have in terms of reintegration”. Beyond creating her brand, she wanted to embark on “a social project”, “inclusive” for both prisoners and consumers.
The prospect of a job upon leaving
At Seysses prison, where some 200 inmates work, this “societal” aspect hit the mark. “The arguments that have weighed are the possibility for detainees to develop technical professional skills that will facilitate their return to employment upon release from detention since the clothing sector is experiencing a new boom in France with the relocation of textile activities , explains the interregional management of the prison administration. However, studies show that access to work in prison and to employment upon release are major factors in the fight against recidivism. The manufacture of eco-responsible textiles also has the advantage of enhancing the value of prisoners and therefore of being a very attractive job. »
Mathilde Cervières is already anticipating criticism. Its employees being in prison, they are necessarily cheaper. “A little below the minimum wage, she admits, but they benefit from the new prison employment contract. She has to come to terms with absences, rhythms, constraints that the outside world does not know.
To really launch the Populere website, the young woman opened crowdfunding. She needs perspective, to know if her solid T-shirts, rather sober, and we can no longer “Made in Occitanie”, please. Its Grail would be to be able to duplicate the workshop in other prisons, and, why not, to recruit in the women’s quarters. For shipments for example, promiscuity being excluded. In the meantime, she is satisfied with the atmosphere of “agreement and mutual aid” which reigns in her small prison workshop. And she is delighted at the idea that an inmate has already inquired about a CAP Couture, “for the future”.