Laura Hurel and Yves-Marie Boquien in front of the main building of Ker Madeleine’s farm. – F.Brenon / 20Minutes
- Ker Madeleine’s farm will produce vegetables and milk.
- Ten inmates will work and sleep there for several months.
- They will not be supervised but will not have the right to leave the farm without authorization.
No bar, no impassable walls as horizon, but a relatively bucolic setting, without fence, three kilometers from the village. In Saint-Gildas-des-Bois (Loire-Atlantique), a town of 3,800 inhabitants north-west of Nantes, the Ker Madeleine farm will welcome its first residents by next summer, announces Laura Hurel, director of Sources of flight. This member association of
Emmaus network plans to set up a reception and work place for the reintegration of inmates at the end of their sentence.
Concretely, ten men usually incarcerated in a detention center will be accommodated “between six months and one year” in these buildings of 550 m2 within the framework of the legal measure known as the “external placement”. They will work on organic market gardening or breeding activities (25 dairy cows) for 26 hours per week. The rest of the schedule will be considered “free” but will still be constrained by imperatives: domestic tasks, farm maintenance, administrative procedures, job search or training …
Five supervisors on site
“The goal is to help these people get out of prison successfully. We therefore seek to empower them, to restore their confidence before plunging completely back into society. This requires finding a rhythm, missions, schedules, but also a little autonomy, a little privacy… ”, explains Laura Hurel.
The inmates will not be alone. Five employees, specializing in integration and agriculture, were recruited to supervise them, “not to supervise them”. One of the supervisors will sleep on site each evening. The prison administration will also carry out regular checks.
Residents will be allowed to receive personal visits but will not have the right to leave the farm (1.5 ha) without an accompanying person or written authorization. “It’s stricter than what the law provides,” warns Laura Hurel, well aware of the reluctance expressed by residents. A scale of sanctions, “which can go as far as immediate re-incarceration”, is also provided for in the event of misconduct.
Concerns and hostility in the town
This type of structure is not entirely new. It has already existed for 25 years at the Moyembrie farm (Aisne). Outside rural areas, similar accommodation for prisoners at the end of their sentence also exists in the Nantes metropolitan area. “The results are very positive, as much for reintegration as for the fight against recidivism. The government also wants to develop this type of device ”, assures Michel Bergue,
sub-prefect of Saint-Nazaire. “The goal is to provide the prisoner with a sort of airlock between the inside and the outside. Returning to society is indeed a difficult moment, ”explains Daniel Raveney, director of the prison integration and probation service. Residents must be volunteers and have passed several assessments. The reason for their conviction will not be an exclusion criterion. “Any detainee, whatever the fault he may have committed, has the right to be reintegrated. The reverse would be discriminatory, ”insists Daniel Raveney.
The prospect of seeing convicted but not locked up people arriving in Saint-Gildas-des-Bois has been causing concern to residents of the area for several weeks. Main argument: insecurity and the “risk of recurrence”. Opponents are also worried about a degradation of the image of the town and the farming profession. A banner very hostile to the project was even hung near the farm last week. The Sources d’Envol association filed a complaint. “We are not worried. People will see that their daily lives are not upset, ”is convinced Yves-Marie Boquien, manager of market gardening techniques.
A monitoring committee with residents will be created. Part of the farm’s production will be sold on site.