Banque Postale to the prisons administration manager alone. The putting in place of financial advice provided by banking sector professionals would also be worthwhile with regard to autonomy in the management of finances. For all of these reasons, the CGLPL recommends that a legislative amendment should be considered in order to take these various different findings into account, to which should be added the fact that the compulsory payment into the savings account should be made rapidly, in order to enable the persons concerned to have the benefit of the interest generated by this investment. Financial autonomy is decisive at the time of release from prison. Yet, nothing appears to be done to help prisoners take steps towards financial autonomy in prison, as illustrated by the fixing of the sums authorised by the prisons administration at the time of temporary releases in view of the estimates drawn up by the persons concerned. The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that, on their return from temporary release, the beneficiaries shall give proof of their expenditure. Although the CGLPL is aware of the need to supervise expenditure laid out at the time of temporary release for security reasons, it nevertheless observes that these measures, by hampering the autonomy of individuals at the very time when they are placed in the situation of being able to exercise their own free will in the external environment, give rise to strong feelings of infantilisation and dispossession. This choice should been made within the framework of dialogue between the judge responsible for the execution of sentences, the prison service for rehabilitation and probation and the person concerned, in order to enable the latter to assert their needs and motivations. The question of the money at the disposal of persons placed under electronic tagging was also brought to the CGLPL’s attention. Indeed, current legal texts do not provide for their release allowance to be handed over to them 73, a sum which could nonetheless enable them to have greater financial autonomy. In the course of the month of December 2012, a senator took this point up with the Minister of Justice. In response, the latter declared her perplexity and that she is engaging in reflection with regard to the appropriateness of handing over release allowances at the time of reduced sentencing. To date, no text has amended the existing provisions. 1.2.5 The Right to Individual Initiative and the Exercise of one’s Responsibilities Today, the Internet has entered personal life to the point of becoming an essential tool for the promotion of access to bodies governed by ordinary law and to higher education, and for staying in touch with the technological changes affecting society 74 etc. It therefore represents a precious tool for rehabilitation and becoming autonomous, which is not incompatible with security imperatives, as shown by one experiment currently in course in a remand prison in the Paris region, aimed at equipping certain individual cells with secure Internet access. 73 Article D. 122 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: “As an exception to the provisions of article D. 318, prisoners having the benefit of partial release measures or unsupervised non-custodial postings in application of article D. 136, of electronic tagging in application of article 723-7 or beneficiaries of temporary release are authorised to have a sum of money enabling them to lay out the expenditure necessary outside of the institution and, in particular, pay for meals eaten outside, use means of transport and deal with any medical costs. The head of the institution shall assess, at the time of leaving the institution by the persons concerned, the amount of the sum to be handed over to them, debited from their available allowance”. 74 The CGLPL set out its position on IT access for prisoners in its opinion of 20th June 2011. 98

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