Would the controversy have made part of the prison administration chilly? On July 27, detainees, guards and young people from Fresnes, in Val-de-Marne, were filmed taking part in a karting race in the prison courtyard. The activity, called “Kohlanness” and organized in tandem by the prison administration and an association, had aroused the indignation of part of the right and the far right, leading to a reaction from the Chancellery.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, had denounced on Twitter “shocking images” and announced that he had “ordered an administrative investigation”. “The fight against recidivism goes through reintegration, but certainly not through karting!”, He was annoyed. The report of the management of the prison administration, published a few days later, points in its conclusions to the responsibility of the management of the establishment, which recognizes an “error of assessment”. Since then, associative stakeholders on social networks have worried about a possible suspension, or even a cessation of activities in prisons. The associations and professionals interviewed unanimously point to the “hesitations” and “reluctance” of members of the prison administration to authorize activities that are off the beaten track in prison.
No instructions from the prison administration
Some activities have already been deleted. Among them, the cancellation of the arrival of a pizza truck within the penitentiary center of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, planned to celebrate the thirty years of the establishment, in the presence of prisoners. If no reason for this cancellation was given, this suspension, which came a week after the karting controversy in Fresnes, immediately raised eyebrows. In the ProgressAlain Chevallier, general secretary of the Ufap-Unsa Justice union, declared: “I am convinced that what happened at Fresnes prison played a major role in this decision and that there have been recent instructions, because there A few days ago we still asked the supervisors to distribute the order forms”.
In the rest of France, other activities would have been put on hold after the explosion of the Kohlanness affair. “Colleagues told us that activities were suspended in the days following the controversy, indicates Sébastien Nicolas, secretary general of the SNP-FO, the majority union among directors of prison services. But that does not mean that everything is stopped. “. The Fondation de France, for example, which supports initiatives each year to prepare and support the reintegration of convicted persons, tells us that it has not been aware of any difficulty resulting from the controversy. The management of the Penitentiary Administration, for its part, claims to have given “no instructions aimed at slowing down, canceling or restricting activities” following the Kohlanness controversy.
Individual initiatives
Several cultural events already announced will take place – or have already taken place. This is particularly the case of Goncourt for prisoners, launched for the first time this year and based on the model of Goncourt for high school students. In the same way, prisoners from the Meaux-Chauconin prison, in Seine-et-Marne, took to the stage at the Théâtre du Châtelet for two performances that took place on September 4 and 6.
But if the daily life in the prisons was not upset by the controversy, the latter clearly installed a fear within the prison administration. “We lack perspective on the lasting effects of this affair, but one thing is certain: since then, we have been called to inform us of the fear of seeing scheduled activities suspended in the future, because they would ultimately not suit the administration. center, notes Dominique Simonnot, general controller of places of deprivation of liberty. There is a risk of self-censorship on the part of prison directors”. At the Chancellery, if it is specified “that no instructions to stop activities have been given”, we do not exclude, moreover, that, through individual initiatives, “some may have been suppressed”.
“classic” activities
No desire, among prison officials, to find themselves in the same situation as the management of Fresnes prison, disavowed in the investigation report of the prison administration carried out at the request of the Keeper of the Seals. “We had a lot of feedback from certain directions, especially at the very beginning of September, confirms Estelle Caro, general secretary of SNEPAP-FSU, national union of all prison administration staff. They put certain pending activities or encouraged agents to turn to activities considered more “classic” than the event that we saw in Fresnes”. What is meant by “classic”? “Activities whose directions are sure that they will not cause controversy, such as those related to reading, or even the decryption of the media”, she continues.
A way of keeping a low profile, while waiting for a clarification of the situation which should occur in the coming days. Following the controversy, Eric Dupond-Moretti announced the arrival of a “circular to clearly set the conditions necessary for the holding of reintegration projects in prison”. “They must now all be subject to express validation by the management of the prison administration,” he said. Until now, only the head of the establishment and the director of the penitentiary integration and probation service had to validate the activities offered to prisoners. In Fresnes, the Kohlanness event had for example been designed under the guidance of the prison management, while benefiting from an authorization in principle from the Chancellery. The inter-regional directorate of penitentiary services (DISP) had also been informed. Neither of them, however, knew the precise content of the tests. With this new circular, the administration should ask directors for more details.
The doubts of prison administration directors
The text, which should be published next week according to the entourage of the Keeper of the Seals, would therefore provide clarification to prison staff who have so far been largely in the dark. “The directors of penitentiary centers are currently waiting”, notes Estelle Caro, who wonders: “What activities are authorized, which are prohibited? If it occurred to me to propose an event to prisoners , like a release from detention to go horseback riding, I would abstain”. This type of activity is however not foreign to the penitentiary. “Animal mediation, which makes it possible to work on trust and the relationship with others other than through violence, is something common in prison, assures Laurent Ridel, the director of the prison administration. I understand that leaders establishments may have questions, but they are not alone: they can, for example, turn, in all large establishments, to socio-cultural coordinators for advice”.
Not enough to reassure the staff, however. “The remarks made in recent days would probably push me not to offer this type of activity,” said the union representative. A self-censorship linked to the political declarations that fueled the controversy of Fresnes. A few days after the publication of the video of the detainees doing karting, Hélène Laporte, vice-president of the National Rally at the Assembly, was thus indignant at the “summer activities organized for the detainees” while “during this time , one child in three does not go on vacation”.
The necessary reintegration
Statements that echo a hardening of the point of view of the population. As an article in L’Express pointed out at the end of August, a study carried out in March 2018 by Ifop for the Jean Jaurès Foundation showed that while 72% of French people were ready to think that the prison must above all prepare the reintegration of prisoners into society in January 2000, they were only 45% eighteen years later. Similarly, when 79% of respondents agreed in 2000 that outsiders – such as teachers or artists – should have wider access to prison, they were only 53% in 2018.
Initiatives to promote the reintegration of prisoners do not, however, date from the Fresnes controversy. In 2008, a “tour de France” on bicycles mixing prisoners and guards had even been organized under the aegis of Claude d’Harcourt, then director of the prison administration. “But today, with the controversy, we have just passed, and the prospect of more cumbersome procedures for requesting authorizations, the directors risk having the trouble meter at zero, points out the former civil servant, now retired. In the future, this risks hampering many initiatives”.
A worrying prospect, while the number of activities offered is still very far from the objectives set by the prison law of 2009. The latter obliges “any convicted person (…) to exercise at least one of the activities which are proposed by the head of the establishment and the director of the penitentiary service for integration and probation”. “But the activity rate is still far below what it should be, and is approaching 30%”, notes Vincent Delbos, president of the Prisons committee at the Fondation de France. The most obvious obstacle to this obligation is linked to prison overcrowding, the occupancy rate of penitentiary establishments being 103% in 2021, with 62,673 prisoners for 60,583 places. “This situation makes it all the more necessary to have activities in prisons, if only so that detainees do not stay 23 hours a day in their cells, continues Vincent Delbos. They are essential to prepare for their release and their reintegration into society.