“Endemic overpopulation”, “unworthy detention conditions”, “insufficient staff”. The general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL) believes that the Grenoble-Varces penitentiary center, in Isère, “no longer has the means to operate”. In recommendations published Friday in the Official Journal, she reports having noted during a visit in July an occupancy rate of more than 173% in the men’s section of the remand center and “numerous structural dysfunctions”.
For her, the situation in the summer of 2023 was particularly “alarming”: “More than 350 detainees in overheated and too small cells, without the possibility of showering regularly […] with access to walks made complex or even reduced.” In four cells, detainees slept on mattresses on the floor.
Referring to “serious attacks on the dignity and fundamental rights of detainees”, the independent administrative authority headed by Dominique Simonnot recommends, “pending” lasting decisions, to find “alternatives to accommodating detainees in these buildings.
“An alarming situation”
The objective of prison regulation “remains, more than ever”, responds the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, in observations attached to this report, while admitting that the rate of the remand center “effectively exceeds 130% “.
“The operational capacity […] was increased by the addition of 201 beds” and there were “no” mattresses on the floor in August, he assures. Furthermore, he writes, “several scenarios are being studied” to “increase the reception capacity”, for amounts “estimated between 70 and 120 million euros”, and “the work will begin in 2025”.
Prison overcrowding continues to worsen in France, at 121.5% compared to 118.1% a year ago.
“Failure” to keep prison overpopulation below 130%
The visit to Grenoble-Varces was motivated by the implementation in 2020 within the establishment of a “regulatory mechanism” cited “as an example” by the authorities which should have made it possible to keep prison overpopulation below 130 %.
“A failure”, for the CGLPL, which calls into question the “local and non-binding” nature of the system, the Grenoble-Varces prison receiving inmates from other establishments when its occupancy rate drops.
During her visit, the controller also noted the presence of twenty-three supervisors instead of sixty, a “degraded functioning that has become the norm”, causing “great stress” for the agents. An understaffing recognized by the minister, for whom, however, the establishment has adopted “adapted operations which guarantee the protection of detained persons and respect for their dignity”. According to the CGPL, however, testimonies indicate “breaches of ethics” by certain agents, mentioning “bullying, disclosure of the reasons for conviction, discriminatory treatment”.