In her annual activity report, unveiled this Wednesday, May 15 at a press conference, Dominique Simonnot, the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL), describes a situation in which detention conditions are deplorable.
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Dominique Simonnot paints a very dark picture. A severe observation established by the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL), based on 110 inspection visits to establishments carried out in 2022. That is, 31 penitentiary establishments, 26 mental health establishments, six hospitals receiving people deprived of their liberty. freedom, five administrative detention centers and waiting areas, four closed educational centers, six courts, 30 police custody and customs detention facilities, and two forced removal procedures.
She notes a “ clear worsening of prison overcrowding » in all the establishments visited. One of the essential reasons and recurring concern of the CGLP: the chronic overcrowding of French prisons. With 77,460 prisoners on April 1 and an average occupancy rate of remand centers at 150.4% and peaks at 250%, France reached a new record for incarcerations.
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Dominique Simonnot denounces an unacceptable situation with regard to human rights. Individual cells never reach 9m2, collective cells designed for four prisoners are occupied by seven individuals. Life in prison then becomes untenable with the consequence of a lack of hygiene, as evidenced by this letter from an octogenarian inmate who sleeps on the floor in the company of cockroaches.
The harmful consequences of this overpopulation are plethora: family ties undermined, access to care and activities hampered, insufficient number of guards… the independent authority has recommended since 2017 the inclusion in the law of prison regulation in order to do not exceed a certain density rate.