upon article L. 521-2 of the Administrative Law Code (Code de justice administrative)70, brought by
the OIP71, in which several other corporations took part. In these circumstances, the Contrôleur
Général des Lieux de Privation de Liberté deemed it necessary to carry out a certain number of
verifications by means of an additional inspection of the institution. The latter was conducted
between 23rd and 27th September 2013.
It was a question of gauging the effect on the ground of the emergency
recommendations and taking these changes into consideration in the
inspection report that would follow up the first visit of the Contrôle Général’s
teams to the institution, one year previously.
On 18th October 2013, the Contrôleur Général passed on this inspection report to the
minister of Justice. It was accompanied with a special examination reporting on the remedies
applied to the situation described in the emergency recommendations.
The most manifest effort made had been with regard to insalubrity. The prison was thus
improved at the level of both the management of refuse (unfortunately, in particular by means of
the installation of gratings on the windows depriving prisoners of daylight) and of the effect
thereof in terms of the presence of dangerous materials (at the time of the second inspection, the
inspectors noted a reduction in the presence of certain types of such materials, which had
previously been strikingly present in the prison). The inspectors also noted that considerable
effort had been made with regard to restoration of the cells to proper condition. Three
operations had been undertaken: painting the walls, restoring the plumbing and electricity to
proper condition and the installation of new windows.
The inspection report drew up an inventory of the renovated cells and of their new
condition. Although the work undertaken should give cause for satisfaction, the Contrôleur Général
nonetheless points out his concern with regard to the non-permanent character of the funds and
human resources devoted to renovation. The additional inspection also made it possible to stress
that certain elements giving cause for concern ascertained in 2012 continue to exist: the level of
violence and the number of transgressions committed in the prison remain high, there is still a
high level of staff absenteeism (in spite of the readjustment of the organisation chart at last
obtained by the management) and the very low level of activity in the workshops remains
unchanged. These issues require far-reaching and continuous work in the long-term and a
constant will to change the reality, which is notably and inexplicably lacking to date.
2.2
Actions taken in response to the Emergency Recommendations
concerning the Two Young Offenders’ Institutions
The recommendations made as a matter of urgency concerning Baumettes prison, and the echo
to which they gave rise in the media, may have given the impression that the emergency
procedure and the notion of “serious violation of fundamental rights” mentioned under article 9
of the Act of 30th October 2007 were reserved for cases in which the inspectors ascertained
particularly shocking dilapidation of places of imprisonment72. The recommendations concerning
70
A summary application referred to as a “liberty” procedure, of which both the lower court judge and the appeal
judge justified the urgency, thus confirming the point of view of the Contrôle Général.
71
The French section of the OIP international prisons watchdog (Observatoire international des prisons) had referred
the state of Baumettes prison to the liberty procedures urgent applications judge of the administrative court of
Marseille, with a request for several urgent measures to be ordered.
72
This was moreover also the case of the emergency recommendations concerning the prison of Nouméa inspected in
December 2011. It has to be said that a dilapidated material condition of places of imprisonment lends itself
particularly well to striking photographic illustration, which enables all to realise the degrading character that can be
attached to the fact of living in certain places. One should make no mistake however: the fact that certain violations of
rights are less easily shown in images does not make them any less serious for all that.
68
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