The US State Department 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007', published this month, identifies shortcomings in the French penal and court system.

Problems outlined include "overcrowded and dilapidated prisons; lengthy pretrial detention; protracted investigation and trial proceedings".

These are all issues that the Celtic League has highlighted over the past five years particularly in relation to the detention of Breton political prisoners within this flawed system.

The Report says :

"Prison and Detention Center Conditions"

Prison and detention centers conditions generally met international standards, and the government permitted visits by independent human rights observers; however, credible nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported overcrowding and unacceptable hygienic conditions in some facilities.

On July 9, the guards of the prison at Chauconin- Neufmontiers went on strike, citing "repeated aggression and a lack of personnel" to contend with a local prison population that exceeded the facility's carrying capacity by more than 50 percent. According to the guards' spokesperson, "90 individuals [were] sleeping on mattresses on the ground."

In February 2006 Council of Europe (COE) Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles released a report based on visits to prison and detention centers over a two-week period in 2005. Overcrowding and inadequate operating resources were the most serious shortcomings noted. In some cases, for example at the La Sante and Les Baumettes prisons, Gil-Robles characterized living conditions as "on the borderline of human dignity." In response to this report, the government committed to adding or renovating 13,300 prison beds. Progress was slow.

According to the Penitentiary Administration, at the end of the year, the country's incarcerated population of 61,076 prisoners exceeded the prison system's carrying capacity by 10,383. The government continued to replace old prisons and add new facilities as part of a project designed to create space for 13,200 additional inmates by the end of the year, but as of December 10, only a fraction of those additional beds had been added.

Although there were no known deaths in prison due to mistreatment or adverse conditions during the year, prison suicides have been a problem in recent years. Penitentiary officials announced that there were 96 prison suicides during the year.

Authorities maintained administrative holding centers (CRAs) for foreigners whom they could not immediately deport. There were 18 holding centers on the mainland. On October 4, the French illegal immigrant advocacy NGO Cimade published its 2006 report criticizing the "catastrophic" state of the country's immigrant detention centers. The report accused the government of "industrializing" the process of deportation and "attacking the dignity of individuals" in an effort to reach yearly expulsion quotas.

In a report made public on December 10, the COE Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), based on visits conducted in October 2006, reiterated many of its earlier criticisms of the prison system, focusing particularly on inappropriate physical restraint, degrading physical treatment and inadequate psychiatric support for inmates. Among the specific criticisms, the report noted that physical restraints interfered with medical care for inmates under high surveillance. Guards refused to remove wrist and ankle shackles to facilitate medical treatment. In addition, limits on the duration of solitary confinement, not to exceed three months, were not respected. CPT investigators encountered one extreme case in which the inmate was kept in solitary confinement for many years. The report also noted that psychiatric personnel were insufficient to meet constantly increasing demand.

In one facility, inmates transferring to psychiatric units were forced to wait over a week, during which time patients showing signs of acute suffering were placed in solitary confinement, "required to remain naked in their cells while under constant surveillance by prison staff."

The CPT report asserted that many of the prison system failings were directly related to chronic overcrowding.

The government permitted prison visits by independent local and foreign human rights observers.

Full 2007 report on France at:

(voir le site)

See related article on Celtic News at:

(voir le site) (voir le site) (voir le site)

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

29/03/08

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