prisons' standard internal regulations are made available to prisoners within libraries and that
institution directors furnish prisoners making such a request with any documents which, although
published, are not directly accessible.
None of the measures mentioned by the Prison Administration Department post-dated the
adoption of the CGLPL's opinion, and there is therefore no reason given in its response that this
proposal would change.
As for the "impossibility" of compiling a collection of texts applicable to prisoners and
keeping this up-to-date, this argument does not strike as genuinely well-founded: if the prison
administration feels incapable of officially recording the right it is responsible for applying, then
this only makes it more necessary to compile a collection thereof. This would satisfy not only a
fundamental right of prisoners, but also, most effectively, a training need for prison staff and all
professionals working in prisons (physicians, lawyers, associations, teachers, inspectors and so on),
whose knowledge of the applicable rules is sometimes patchy. It would also satisfy a need to inform
academics and the public alike.
The CGLPL gives a reminder that preventing people deprived of liberty from being able to
know their applicable rights amounts to arbitrary treatment – as evidenced particularly by Rule 54
of The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners:
"Upon admission, every prisoner shall be promptly provided with written information
about:
a) The prison law and applicable prison regulations;
b) His or her rights, including authorised methods of seeking information, access to legal
advice, including through legal aid schemes, and procedures for making requests or complaints;
c) His or her obligations, including applicable disciplinary sanctions; and;
d) All other matters necessary to enable the prisoner to adapt himself or herself to the life
of the prison. "
The European Prison Rules express this principle differently, but with the same consequences:
"30.1 - At admission, and as often as necessary afterwards all prisoners shall be informed in
writing and orally in a language they understand of the regulations governing prison discipline and
of their rights and duties in prison.
30.2 - Prisoners shall be allowed to keep in their possession a written version of the
information they are given."
The CGLPL recommends compiling, in the very short term, a collection of legislation and
regulations along with circulars that are applicable to prisoners, and keeping this up -to-date.
2.5
Opinion of 8 August 2013 concerning young children in prison and their
imprisoned mothers
Following this opinion, which was published in the Journal Officiel (Official Gazette) dated 3
September 2013 and did not receive any comments on the part of the Ministry of Justice, the Prison
Administration Director shared her comments with the CGLPL on 16 September 2016.
This opinion addressed the paradoxical nature of the choice to separate children from their
imprisoned parents or, to avoid the effects of separation, to involve them in the situation of
deprivation of liberty up to the age of 18 months. The CGLPL had already mentioned this difficulty
in its 2010 annual report and urged for discussions to ensure that mothers in prison with their
children are necessarily granted access to the possibility of their sentence being adjusted with, for
example, release on parole or the benefit of a suspended sentence for maternity reasons.
62
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