The Minister of Justice during a visit to Villepinte prison, in March 2021. – MEIGNEUX ROMUALD / SIPA
- The executive has pledged to build 15,000 additional prison spaces by 2027.
- This real estate plan has two phases. The first should lead to the delivery or start of construction of 7,000 spaces by 2022 and the second to the launch of 8,000 additional spaces available by 2027.
- According to the government, 2,000 net places have already been put into service since the launch of this plan.
After the interview with very secure accents granted Sunday by Emmanuel Macron to the Figaro, the regal sequence continues for the executive. Tuesday, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice will go to Lutterbach (Haut-Rhin) for an inaugural visit of the future penitentiary center located in the town. A “political” displacement, claims the entourage of Jean Castex, who will launch the second phase of the “prison plan”, promised by the Head of State after his election. In total, 15,000 new prison places should be created by 2027.
“2,000 net places have already been put into service and 120 more will be with the opening of the Lutterbach center,” said a government source. 8,000 new places must also be launched before the end of the five-year term, in addition to the 7,000 delivered expected by 2022. And the objective brandished by the government is ambitious. While France has been condemned several times by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for detention conditions deemed “unworthy”, the executive hopes to achieve an “individual cell” rate of 80%, once all the establishments have been built.
Targeted “tense” areas
During their trip, the Keeper of the Seals and the Head of Government will unveil the locations selected for these future penitentiary centers or remand centers. “These decisions were the subject of extensive consultation with all the elected officials concerned and at all levels,” assures a source within the executive. In total, 15 construction operations should see the light of day with a view to a delivery spread between 2025 and 2027. Île-de-France, the Mediterranean rim and the Great West will be the regions most concerned, the government having favored areas where the lack of space is the most glaring. Nîmes, Pau and Vannes will accommodate, for example, penitentiary centers with 250 to 700 places.
For Jean-François Forget, general secretary of the Unsa-Ufap penitentiary union, this second phase of the “prison plan” is “necessary” in view of prison overcrowding, which more particularly affects remand centers, where prisoners are imprisoned. people awaiting judgment. “After the confinement of March 2020, we managed to drastically reduce the number of detainees by dropping below the bar of 60,000 people incarcerated. But a year later, we have already gone back to more than 64,000 detainees, ”recalls the union official. But according to him, this renewal of the building stock must be accompanied by a “specialization” of future establishments according to the profiles of the detainees. “Incarcerating together people prosecuted for terrorism, sexual violence or traffic offenses, that does not work”, he denounces.
Structures according to profiles
If the project sponsored by the government is not oriented towards a distinction of establishments by type of offenses or crimes committed by the detainees, structures more adapted to the “profile” of the prisoners must be developed in the years to come. Among the 15,000 new places, 2,000 will be created in “SAS”, “support structures towards the exit”, promises the government. These establishments will be reserved for inmates whose “remaining sentences will be less than two years” with a significant need for social and medical support.
“But we still need to put in the adequate human resources to intervene in these future SAS,” says Céline Parisot, president of the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (USM). “So if this is not accompanied by additional staff for the SPIP (penitentiary integration and probation services), it will not work. “
In parallel with the “SAS”, three “experimental prison” projects should also see the light of day. “These will be structures focused on work and vocational training. They will have 180 places each and the inmates will be oriented there according to their motivation to build their professional project. The idea is to accompany them towards the exit, ”adds a government source.
A virtuous project that should be offered to the entire prison population, criticizes Cécile Marcel, director of the International Prison Observatory (OIP) in France: “Individualize the sentence to support people towards their release and reintegration, That’s good, but if it concerns 2,500 people, that means that 60,000 inmates are left behind. These future structures will remain marginal. This effort should be generalized and the logic reversed by stopping reserving for a minority what should be the rule. “