Gérald Darmanin details his plan for new ultra-secure prisons in order to isolate the most dangerous drug traffickers. With a first operational establishment this summer, these new structures will impose a strict prison regime, inspired by the Italian antimafia model.
Gérald Darmanin announces an in -depth transformation. In an interview with Figaro This Thursday, February 20, the Minister of Justice exhibits his project of ultra-secure prison centers, intended to completely isolate from the rest of the company and “cut the world” the 100 main drug traffickers currently detained in France.
The objective is to impose on these prisoners – and more broadly on at least a thousand individuals deemed among the most threatening – a particularly strict prison regime, inspired by Italian antimafia devices. These detainees will be placed in dedicated establishments, for a period of four years renewable by ministerial decision, like the model applied in Italy.
Among the systems envisaged by the Minister of Justice: the systematic appeal to videoconferencing to limit extractions, unless otherwise decided by a magistrate, as well as compulsory excavations after each parlor, which would take place behind hygiaphones.
Six hours of telephone exchanges per week
Inmates could only exchange three hours a week, for unlimited access currently via prisons fixed phones. The program also provides for the abolition of family life units. According to Gérald Darmanin, these measures aim to make these establishments completely hermetic, cut off from any link with the outside.
Measures that raise questions for certain associations. “The prison has a punitive function, that’s for sure. But one day, these people will go out. At that time, they will be even more dangerous than when they come back, that’s still a problem,” defends Évelyne Sire-Marin, magistrate and vice-president of the Human Rights League.
In his interview at Figarothe minister clearly displays his ambitions: “By 2027, I wish to create four high security establishments”. He also announced that the first transfers of detainees will start at the end of March, followed by work carried out at an accelerated pace, in order to incarcerate drug traffickers in total isolation.
Gérald Darmanin claims that the first of these specialized prisons will be fully operational by July 31. He also specifies that their opening will be accompanied by specific training for prison personnel, in order to guarantee them secure working conditions.
On Friday, February 14, Gérald Darmanin then assured that there were currently four eligible penitentiary centers to accommodate the system: that of Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais), the central house of Saint-Maur (Indre) , the penitentiary center of Alençon-Condé-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe) and the central house of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). Once his choice is made, four million euros will be invested to “renovate this prison”.
A narcotracier “cannot have a pleasant life”
If the Minister of Justice has insisted on the airtight aspect of this new prison, it is indeed because the drug traffickers who will stay there do not have a profile like the others. “We have the list of 100 people who will go to this prison,” he said. However, these are not the “most dangerous” detainees. In reality, it is “those who can communicate outside, who can organize their traffic from prison,” he said.
Last January, during the announcement of the project, Gérald Darmanin regretted the “diversity” between these profiles and other prisoners, a process which obviously does not work because of the difference in “dangerousness” between them. For him, this new generation prison intends to show “that when you are in prison and you are a great drug trafficker, you cannot call and you cannot have a pleasant life”.