With narrow and overcrowded cells, the conditions of detention, already difficult in normal times, become a nightmare in hot weather, say the prison guards.
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The thermometer explodes in the prison of Aix-Luynes, near Marseille, where Antoine Henry is a supervisor. ” 37 degrees, and up to 50 degrees in the lawyer parlor “, he notes. With 1,600 detainees for 1,200 places and cells of 9 to 12 square meters, some prisoners are suffocating.
Discomfort, violence
“ We have discomfort, vomiting “, he describes. And the prisoners cool off as best they can. “ Inmates take their water bottles which they canteen, fill them with water, put them in their freezers and they hang them behind their fans so that the air coming out of the fan is cool “explains the supervisor.
A lesser evil. Except that heat sometimes rhymes with agitation. “ It irritates the criminal population, and it creates tensions “, deplores Cyril Huet-Lambling, of the union of prison guards. ” This gives an increase in the level of attacks on staff, which multiply by three or even four times each summer. “, he comments.
Fans
The prison administration reacted. The exits of the detainees were shifted to the less hot hours, she installed her own fans. ” It’s a solution that has made it possible to lower a maximum of one or even two degrees, so we still arrive at temperatures that are impossible. That doesn’t solve the problem “, underlines the union representative.
In the event of a heat wave, the most effective lever is to limit the number of prisoners per cell, says this union. But he despairs: We’ve been talking about it for years, we don’t have too much hope in the public authorities. »
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