Are detainees who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 in a prison in Guadeloupe encouraged to take the plunge in exchange for very concrete benefits, such as a reduced sentence?
This is supported by several Internet users on Twitter, one of them stating in particular: “Vaccination blackmail in prison: if you vaccinate yourself, your certificate will be taken into account in the files of requests for permission, improvement of sentence and reduction of additional sentence !!! IGNOBLE, they are limitless [et] freewheeling !! “
🔴💉Vaccination singing in prison👿👿
If you are vaccinated, your certificate will be taken into account in the files of requests for permission, adjustment of sentence and reduction of additional sentence !!!
IGNOBLE they are limitless in freewheeling !!@ DIVIZIO1 @autrement_your pic.twitter.com/yM9tJDmfPE– Association Victims Covid-19 France 🇫🇷 (@AssoCovid) August 15, 2021
As proof, this Twitter user relayed the photo of a paper “vaccination request”, on which detainees would be asked to indicate their identity and their prison and cell number, as well as their vaccination status ( “I want to be vaccinated”, “I do not want to be vaccinated”, “I have already been vaccinated”).
“In agreement with the ARS [Agence régionale de santé] Guadeloupe, the Sanitary Unit of the Baie-Mahault penitentiary center offers all people in detention vaccination against the Covid-19 virus. […] The vaccination certificate will be taken into account in the files of requests for permission, adjustment of sentence and the granting of RPS [réductions de peine] », Can we read in this document.
FAKE OFF
Joined by 20 minutes, ARS Guadeloupe confirms that it “coordinates vaccination with the health service of establishments”, but indicates that it “is not aware” of “the measure [liée à l’attestation] “.
For its part, the Ministry of Justice confirms that “this document did circulate within the Baie-Mahault penitentiary center”, while specifying: “There was no instruction from the prison administration in this regard. meaning: this is a very local initiative of this penitentiary center and its care unit, taken as part of the organization of its vaccination campaign, in the context of an acute health crisis. “
The Chancellery, which deplores “the awkwardness of the wording of the document”, suggesting that vaccination is the only criterion taken into account by the judge of application of sentences to decide, also claims to have “ensured that it does not ‘there was no other similar initiative elsewhere in the territory’ and ‘that this document will no longer be used’.
Vaccination cannot be “the only element” taken into account by the judge
And the Ministry of Justice to recall the legal framework for any measure of freedom for detainees: “Only a sentence enforcement judge can grant a reduction or a modification of the sentence, or a leave of absence, and this on the basis of criteria fixed by law. He has a sovereign power of appreciation and takes into account the elements brought to his knowledge: the fact, for a prisoner, of having been vaccinated is an element which the judge will perhaps take into account, but among many others, it cannot be the sole or determining element in its decision, hence the awkwardness of this document. “
According to the General Directorate of Health (DGS), joined by 20 minutes, and while awaiting “consolidated data on the coverage rate in prisons”, “nearly 37,000 injections were carried out in 165 sanitary units in prison (USMP), including 22,000 first injections and 15,000 second injections [sur les] 66,000 detainees recorded on June 1, 2021 by the Ministry of Justice ”.