“The majority union of magistrates should congratulate the Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty for having brought to light the pitiful conditions of detention”

NOTWe are lawyers, human rights defenders, legal practitioners or simply active observers of civic life. We have learned, through the press, that an independent administrative authority legally responsible for ensuring respect for the fundamental rights of persons deprived of liberty, the Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL), was violently attacked by the Syndicate Union of Magistrates (USM) – majority union among magistrates.

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What is he accused of? Having sent a report to the Minister of Justice noting the many excesses of criminal policy and legal action in terms of incarceration and adjustment of sentences in French Polynesia. Everyone knows the unworthy conditions of detention and the overcrowding of places of deprivation of liberty.

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The majority union of magistrates does not want the Comptroller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty to be able to report on it or to analyze the causes of these abuses linked to legal action, when it is his legal mission – especially more that this non-public report was not intended for this union.

A democratic duty

At the time of the pseudo-controversy about a karting session in Fresnes between a few prisoners and guards, and the media agitation around the conditions of incarceration, however pitiful, we must forcefully recall that the democracy of a country is measured by the conditions of detention of convicted persons.

That the duty to uphold the principle of dignity and the individual freedoms of detainees is constitutionally incumbent on the magistrates of the judicial order. If they no longer have the means to carry out this mission, their union representatives should naturally congratulate the Comptroller General of places of deprivation of liberty for highlighting these conditions, and not try to muzzle him.

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Furthermore, we, lawyers, have decided to implement a mass action in order to exercise the recognized right of each detained person to obtain release when the conditions of detention are unworthy. A model request has been made available to all lawyers, detainees and families of detainees who so wish, in order to enable them to exercise such legal recourse. Exercising a right in current prison conditions is a democratic duty.

the first signatories of this forum are: Arié AlimiParis Bar; Marion HouseholdVal-d’Oise Bar; Samir KahoulBar of Créteil; Hicham AbdelmoumenParis Bar; Anise HarabiParis Bar; Karine ShebaboParis Bar; Edith FarautNice Bar; Hana Cherif HautecoeurParis Bar; Constance DelacouxParis Bar; Alexis BaudelinParis Bar; Stephane MaugendreBobigny Bar; Helena BondoHauts-de-Seine Bar; Julia MassardierRouen Bar; Marine RogeParis Bar; Nadine ReyParis Bar; Cecilia CalvezParis Bar; Boris RosenthalParis Bar; Nicolas Thomas CollombierEssonne Bar; Nathalie NoelBordeaux Bar; Corinna KerfantBar of Versailles; Julia KatlamaParis Bar; Elise ArfiParis Bar.