She has become a symbol of prison malaise. The Bordeaux-Gradignan prison (Gironde) suffers from overcrowding exceeding 200% and its “unworthy” detention conditions continue according to associations, despite some material progress and a new building in 2024.
While the number of prisoners in France reached a new record at 75,130 for 61,000 places in November, this penitentiary center built in the 1960s has been the subject of several damning procedures and reports over the past year due to its dilapidation and its congestion. As of December 11, the day of the parliamentary visit which the AFP was able to join, there were 644 male prisoners for 305 places and 49 women for 22 places. About a hundred cells were in “triplets”, with bunk beds and a third mattress on the floor.
“Cockroaches, we crush them or we throw them away, it’s endless”
This occupancy rate of 211% is one of the highest in France. In May, he led the prison administration to interrupt admissions for a little over a month, reducing overcrowding to 200%, but it quickly rose again.
Added to this are insects, water infiltration, dirt… “The cockroaches, we crush them or throw them away, it’s endless,” testifies a 20-year-old inmate. The young man, wearing colorful jogging pants and a goatee on his chin, sips coffee using a jar as a cup. In his 8 square meter cell, he lives with two other inmates and sleeps on the floor. Laundry is drying on lines, the only table is covered with kitchen utensils or cigarettes. No door to the toilet, hidden behind a simple sheet; the walls are peeling and tiles on the floor are falling into shreds.
“It’s hell to live in this environment”
“The most annoying thing is promiscuity,” summarizes Jean-Michel Hauquin, delegate of the Defender of Rights, present every week. “It’s hell to live in this environment. » Tensions and incidents multiply: beatings against a guard in August, a guard scalded in November in the isolation unit, fire in a cell in December…
“The guards are disgusted,” says Francis Vandenschrick, of the FO Pénitentiaire union. “On one floor, instead of having 40 inmates, we have 95. Imagine their work! From time to time, they stop because they can’t take it anymore. » In 2022, a report from the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty judged the conditions in Bordeaux-Gradignan “particularly outrageous”, even “inhumane”.
Lack of medical staff
The International Prison Observatory (OIP), the Association for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights and the Bordeaux Bar Association subsequently sued the State. And obtained from the administrative court nine concrete injunctions, aimed in particular at improving the brightness of cells, the quality of meals or access to medical care. The administration also claims to have invested in renovating certain showers.
But no structural measures, deplores Nicolas Ferran, head of litigation at the OIP. “An overcrowded establishment does not guarantee respect for any fundamental rights because everything is dysfunctional,” he laments.
A year later, in November, the Bordeaux administrative court found several injunctions satisfied, with a persistent black spot: the lack of medical personnel, calculated from the theoretical reception capacity. Currently, the prison has 3.9 full-time equivalent general practitioners and 2.8 psychiatrists.
Soon a new structure with 600 places
While 15,000 additional places are expected in France within three years, a new building must be inaugurated in May in Gradignan, the first stage of a future complex of 600 places by 2027. “It will no longer have anything to see,” promises Dominique Bruneau, director of the prison. “We are going to be in a 21st century prison, with a shower in the cell. »
But a prison source fears a “draft of air” from the overcrowded prisons in the surrounding area: “With 600 places overall in 2027, some consider that they already have 1,200. » “600 places is underestimated” compared to the more than 800 current inmates, confirms Francis Vandenschrick of FO Pénitentiaire.