Service and that the administration had openly agreed with this assessment. It recommended that
the measures put forward in the cross-government report be adopted out of necessity.
One year on, the CGLPL finds that considerable regulatory progress has been made 8. The
precise contents thereof can be observed, incidentally, in Chapter 3 of this annual report on
supervision of the recommendations of the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté. As
such, these days institutions have a detailed body of regulations at their disposal. And yet the visits
conducted by the CGLPL in juvenile detention centres shut down subsequent to the adoption of
these texts reveal that their application in practice is uncertain and that they are not widely known
– including in institutions where strict management is in place. Training and audits are therefore
required.
Training and audits must be carried out as soon as possible to ensure the recent body of
regulations concerning juvenile detention centres is fully grasped and applied.
6. The situation in police custody facilities
6.1
Not enough or too much work can lead to breaches in the respect of the
fundamental rights of people placed in custody.
6.1.1
Very small gendarmerie units are simply unable to bear the costs associated
with providing acceptable, safe accommodation for people in custody.
The situation of small brigades remains highly unsatisfactory in gendarmerie units: the number of
people taken into custody over the year is seldom more than a few dozen, which means the
gendarmes overseeing them lack experience, and the facilities are poorly equipped insofar as the
investment that would be needed to bring them up to standard appears legitimately unjustified. The
night-time surveillance conditions are inadequate, despite the plans intended to set up a hotline.
Lawyers are reluctant to make the journey to the station and medical checkups are organised using
local means, which are very disparate depending on area.
As such, in two merged brigade units (called communities), none of the ten cells in total met
the criteria defined by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). The inspectors even considered two of them to be
frankly unfit for occupation. Elsewhere, one local brigade that is open for two afternoons a week,
with no law enforcement officers on duty, still has cells, even though these are not heated and no
more than seven people are taken into custody in them in any one year. In another brig ade, where
thirty people are taken into custody a year, the cell's toilets, of the squat type, are located opposite
the peephole and there is no flush. In this unit, how the physical accommodation conditions
concerning people in custody are managed overall is unclear, with no traceability. The register is
8
Ruling of 31 March 2015 on the rules bearing on the organisation, running and management of juvenile detention centres
in the public Judicial Youth Protection sector;
Guidelines dated 4 May 2015 on drafting the operating regulations concerning collective court-ordered placement institutions
in the public sector and authorised associations sector;
Notice dated 4 May 2015 on the operating regulations;
Notice dated 22 October 2015 on educative action during court-ordered placements;
Notice dated 30 November 2015 on the violation of fundamental rights via the use of search practices in institutions and
services in the public sector and authorised associations sector;
Notice dated 24 December 2015 on the prevention and management of violent situations;
Implementing circular dated 10 March 2016 for the Ruling of 31 March 2015.
32
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