As part of on-site verifications, inspectors visit any location required by the investigation to
meet with any person and to receive any document under the sole reservations mentioned in Articles
8 and 8-1 of the Act of 30 October 2007 amended. The verifications can be carried out unannounced
or at short notice, particularly in order to allow the management to compile the documents requested.
The person who referred the case to the CGLPL may also, where applicable, be apprised of this
verification and, to the extent possible, interviewed on-site by the inspectors. The latter also take any
steps which seem likely to increase their understanding of the case they have been referred, in order to
gain as complete a picture of the situation as possible.
All on-site verifications lead to a written report setting out the inspectors' findings and
recommendations. The report is sent to the authorities concerned, who feed back their observations.
At the end of this adversarial procedure, the reports of the on-site verifications and
observations are published, unless special circumstances dictate otherwise, on the CGLPL's website.
Any information by which the person(s) concerned may be identified is removed beforehand, to
respect professional confidentiality and the confidentiality of the talks with the people who referred
the case to the CGLPL.
4.1
On-site verifications conducted in 2017
Some on-site verifications concern individual situations, while others are conducted as part of
thematic thought processes, which can take place prior to an opinion. Accordingly, one of the on-site
verifications conducted in 2017 was to do with work on access to medical care in detention centres
for illegal immigrants - following on from the aforementioned referral concerning the Ministers of
Health and the Interior.
Some on-site verifications, bearing on individual circumstances, can also take place as part of
general work. In this way, one on-site verification concerning a hospitalised child was carried out as
part of the drafting of the thematic report on the fundamental rights on children in mental health
institutions.
In all cases, on-site verifications – even when they concern an individual situation – are always
an opportunity for the CGLPL to issue general recommendations with a view to preventing
fundamental right violations.
From January to December 2017, the CGLPL performed seven on-site
verifications - three of which were carried out unannounced. Other on-site
verifications were announced two to three days prior to the inspectors' arrival.
Some of them required observations to be made swiftly on-site with no prior
adversarial talks with the responsible authority. In other situations, the
information gathered from an adversarial procedure conducted beforehand by
post did not enable the CGLPL to gain an objective picture of the situation.
Two on-site verifications were carried out at detention centres for illegal immigrants, two in
penal institutions and one in a hospital. Two other on-site verifications required travel to more than
one institution: for one, a penal institution and a hospital, and for the other, a detention centre for
illegal immigrants and the affiliated hospital.
4.1.1
Protection of vulnerable prisoners at the Béziers prison complex
For the first time, an on-site verification was conducted jointly with officials delegated by the
Defender of Rights. The Chief Inspector had received several referrals in 2016 bearing on the
detention conditions at the Béziers prison complex, not least in the solitary confinement wing and
punishment wing, as well as reports of violence perpetrated between prisoners and involving warders.
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