in mental health institutions is organised purely in view of the clinical condition of the patient
concerned.
1.4
The
recommendations
undocumented foreigners
concerning
facilities
accommodating
The CGLPL's general recommendations to do with detention facilities and centres for illegal
immigrants bore on all aspects of the treatment of people placed in such institutions. The details
and supervision thereof can be found in Appendix 4.
These concern the application of security measures, order inside the centres, compliance
with prisoners' rights to property, defence, privacy and relations with the outside world, the
organisation of activities, medical treatment and the rights bearing on application of the deportation
measure.
The CGLPL's general recommendations give rise to exhaustive supervision on the part of
the Ministry of the Interior which, overall, does not express any disagreements in principle, with
the following exceptions.
Concerning the maximum length of time in detention, for which the CGLPL
recommends returning to thirty-two days, the Minister of the Interior simply
recalls the fact that the Act of 7 March 2016 has retained a maximum length
of time in detention of forty-five days. But the CGLPL believes that this length
of time is excessive in view of the objective to deport people placed in
administrative detention: indeed, in practice it is observed that if a person is
not deported within their first two weeks in detention, this will turn out to be
impossible in the vast majority of cases. There is therefore no justification for
keeping someone in detention for forty-five days insofar as this timeframe is
itself proof that the person will most likely not be deported.
Concerning prisoners' access to their personal belongings, the Minister of the Interior
believes that the security measures are at odds with the provision of any furniture that can be locked
and which may conceal banned items. He also considers that the fragility of this furniture is
incompatible with use by a large number of people merely passing through on short stays. The
CGLPL cannot accept this argument and asks for a technical solution to be sought to enable the
provision of sturdy furniture that can be inspected.
Concerning mobile phones, the CGLPL asks that these not be banned, whereas the Minister
of the Interior is of the opinion that mobile phones equipped with a camera should not be
authorised. The CGLPL feels that prisoners should be able to keep their mobile phones, but be
warned that taking photographs is prohibited. If this warning is not heeded, the device may, under
these exceptional circumstances, be confiscated. In the CGLPL's view, current practice must be
interpreted as a disproportionate precaution in light of the risk.
Lastly, while the CGLPL recommends facilitating access to psychiatric care for prisoners
via agreements between detention centres and mental health institutions or the presence of
psychiatrists in centres, the Minister of the Interior does not think that the number of external
movements of prisoners for psychiatric disorders justifies such precautions. The CGLPL does not
believe this statement matches up to the observations it has made during its visits and asks that it
be backed up by an epidemiological study.
54
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents