Generally, when a man spends part of the afternoon in a court and his evening in prisonthis is not a good sign for him. Except when the man in question happens to be the brand new Keeper of the Seals chosen by François Bayrouthe Prime Minister. “My presence here, this Wednesday, December 25, is a message of support to prison officers, said on this Christmas Day Gerald Darmanin when he had just entered the prison of Liancourt. I will always be behind them and I wanted to pay tribute to their work with this trip. For me it is also about paying tribute to these two agents who were not shot but murdered last May at the Incarville tollbooth.”
588 detainees for 230 agents
In Liancourt, the minister was able to talk with the director of the penitentiary center who focused on the figures. Gérald Darmanin thus learned that the prison had 588 inmates for 230 officers. “The average age of detainees is 35 years old and many of them are here for cases related to drug trafficking,” said the director. The minors’ quarters have 20 places and only 14 of them are occupied to date…
Welcomed this Wednesday by the prefect of Oise, Jean-Marie Caillaud, the deputy David Magnier and the mayor of Liancourt, Laëtitia Coquelle, Gérald Darmanin had previously clarified in Amiens the broad outlines of the policy he intends to pursue. He explained in particular that he intended to “obtain more resources for his ministry in order to enable rapid justice thanks to increased staffing.” For him, “justice is unfortunately too slow and the magistrates are the first to complain about it…”
More speed, more firmness
“What we want is more speed, more firmness,” he added. We cannot do it with constant means. This speed requires more staff, more clerks and more magistrates. We will be reasonable because we will obviously have to take into account national budgetary constraints, but we must increase this budget of the Ministry of Justice.
Gérald Darmanin indicated that he “had made an appointment next Monday with Amélie de Montchalin, the new minister responsible for public accounts, to discuss this extremely important issue.”
Several judicial unions have expressed their concerns about the desire for firmness displayed by the new Minister of Justice, who also said on Tuesday that he wanted to work hand in hand with his colleague from the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. The Minister of Justice tried to reassure them this Wednesday: “I have political convictions, of course. But I am a man of dialogue. All subjects must be put on the table.”
Prison density reaches 128.5%
More than 80,000 people were incarcerated in the country as of November 1. This constitutes a new record and corresponds to a prison density of 128.5%. “And this while the objective of building 15,000 additional prison places should not be reached before 2029 in the best case scenario,” warned Didier Migaud, then still Minister of Justice, last month.
“But we don’t always need prisons for people sentenced to 20 years of detention,” Gérald Darmanin said on Wednesday. We must be able to do things much more on a human scale, almost everywhere on the national territory. The idea is that small sentences, short sentences, must be carried out.”
