Opinion of 21st October 200911 concerning detainees' exercise of their right to correspondence 1/ The right to private and family life includes the right to retain the maximum possible proximity with one's family. In addition, the right to correspond in writing is a form of individual freedom that falls within the freedom of expression. Finally, an individual's ability to appeal to the author of a decision applying to that individual should be preserved. For these three reasons, we must pay particular attention to detainees' right to correspondence. Such a right can therefore only be restricted – and in a proportionate manner – if specific conditions requiring this restriction are simultaneously met. That is why the French Code of Criminal Procedure (and curiously, today only in its regulatory part) provides for prisoners' freedom to correspond: "convicted prisoners may write to any person of their choosing and receive letters from anyone" ... "every day, without limitation". Moreover, upon entering the establishment, they are provided with paper and writing materials. However, this freedom is subject to a double restriction. First, in general, all letters sent and received "may be read" (the reading of defendants' letters must be authorised by the examining magistrate, to whom they are transmitted). Second, the head of the establishment may "retain" (i.e. refuse to deliver) a recipient's mail, in two cases: when the content of the letter "appears to seriously compromise" the prisoner's rehabilitation or the establishment's security (unless the letter is sent to a spouse or family member) or when the letter contains specific threats to the security of the establishment (even if it is sent to a spouse or family member). Finally, there is an exception to this restriction: correspondence between prisoners and their lawyers or certain administrative authorities specified in the code is not inspected. 2/ Correspondence deserves respect; this should lead the prison administration to treat prisoners' correspondence with care and to 11 Published in the Journal Officiel de la République française n°0250 of 28th October 2009, text n°87. 25