She had only been in office for a few hours when she pushed open the heavy metal door of Rennes-Vezin prison on January 2. Appointed president the day before, the lawyer Catherine Glon had made this prison visit a priority. Committed, the criminal lawyer has already visited the walls of the remand center several times to meet with clients. But she had never gone further than the parlors reserved for lawyers. This Monday, the one who oversees the thousand lawyers of the bar of Rennes was accompanied by the socialist senator Sylvie Robert and the deputy Nupes Mickaël Bouloux to visually see what everyone already knows: the prisons are overloaded. “You have to see it to understand,” says the lawyer, shocked to see so many mattresses on the ground.
Planned to accommodate 650 prisoners when it was inaugurated in 2010, the Rennes-Vezin prison currently houses around 840. It is in the quarter of the prison that the problem arises with 519 detainees for 390 places, that is to say a rate of 133% of overcrowding. Consequence: the cells intended for a single man are inhabited by two to three prisoners. The last to arrive often has to make do with a foam mattress on the floor, without a pillow. According to the prison administration, 57 mattresses on the floor are taken out each evening in Vezin. “We were able to discuss with the medical service, which is already seeing the effects on health with many lower back pain and tensions between prisoners,” laments Catherine Glon.
“He spent several hours with a corpse”
The chairman also wanted to discuss with Maxime Rekik’s fellow prisoner. On the night of September 9 to 10, 2022, this 25-year-old was dead, dying, despite repeated cries for help from his cell partner. “He spent several hours with a corpse. It’s scary, ”annoys Me Glon. An investigation was opened at the request of the Minister of Justice to shed light on this death. “I don’t judge what happened. And prison officers are doing what they can. But how to explain that they are only twelve at night to monitor the three establishments? “.
Present alongside Catherine Glon, the deputy Mickaël Bouloux, former mayor of Rheu discovered the prison for the first time. “One can only be touched and moved by such a visit. Overcrowding makes living conditions difficult. We are not talking about a simple statistic, we see humans who are subjected to it. The deputy was particularly marked by the discussion with an inmate multiplying the outrages to be placed in solitary confinement. “Isolation should be a punishment. But for him, it was like a respite. »
Conditions contrary to reintegration
Senator Sylvie Robert, who was not on her first visit, makes the same startling observation. “We measure the reality of overpopulation when we see it. In the medical unit, the staff is dedicated but overwhelmed. There are detainees who should be in psychiatry but who are locked up here for lack of space, ”laments the socialist. Here, it takes several months to get a dental appointment.
In Vezin, as everywhere in the country, the detainees are piling up and are more and more numerous. “The prison has an obligation to carry out a reintegration mission. But the suffering of the body and the spirit is added like a complementary sorrow to the confinement. Here, certain reintegration conditions are clearly counterproductive to the reintegration process,” laments Catherine Glon. The lawyer, like the entire profession, is impatiently awaiting the action plan of Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti. From the Estates General of Justice, it must be presented this Thursday by the Keeper of the Seals.