The Council of State ordered the State, Monday, to pay 80,000 euros to the family of an inmate who hanged himself in Uzerche prison (Corrèze) in 2014, accusing the prison administration of a lack of prevention after a first suicide attempt.
In its decision, the highest administrative court in fact recalls that the deceased had left in his cell a letter written on the day of his death, to the attention of his partner, in which “he mentioned, in unambiguous terms , a previous suicide attempt” within the Neuvic detention center, where he had previously been incarcerated.
“Serious incidents” occurring during his detention
A precedent that the prison administration “could not normally ignore” and of which it was indeed “aware”, continues the Council of State, also noting that psychiatric assessments of the inmate had revealed serious personality disorders. Furthermore, due to “serious incidents” that occurred during his detention, the latter had requested his transfer to another building in the establishment but the administration had only “partially satisfied his request”.
These elements had led the widow of the detainee and his still minor daughter, as well as his parents, his brother and his sister, to formulate a first request for compensation rejected in 2021 by the Limoges administrative court. The Bordeaux administrative court of appeal confirmed this judgment by ruling out the existence of a fault on the part of the administration on the grounds that the letter left by the deceased had been found after his death.
The Council of State ruled on the contrary that “the prison administration, despite the information at its disposal, relating in particular to the existence of serious mental disorders and a previous suicide attempt, which were likely to characterize in [le détenu] the presence of a suicidal risk, did not identify this risk nor, consequently, take adequate preventive measures of protection or surveillance.”
Annulling the order of the administrative court of appeal of Borddeaux and the judgment of the administrative court of Limoges, the Council of State found “an error of a nature to engage the responsibility of the State”, ordered to compensate the family.