The fifth wave continues to hit Île-de-France, with more than 3,000 cases of Covid per 100,000 inhabitants at the regional level. In Villepinte, the remand center has 179 inmates positive for Covid-19.
While the incidence rate has reached 3,140 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Île-de-France, according to the latest figures from Public Health France, the region continues to be heavily affected by the current epidemic rebound. The fifth wave hits remand centers in particular: in Villepinte, in Seine-Saint-Denis, there are thus 179 inmates positive for Covid-19.
This is the largest current focus in French prisons. “Today we have 179 detainees who are positive“, explains the director of the establishment, Michaël Merci, during a visit to the prison. According to him, the figure rose to 202 cases on January 1, out of a total of 988 detainees, at the following a massive screening operation carried out two days earlier.
There are 28 cases among employees, says the Ministry of Justice. The screening operation was organized following the detection of two positive cases on December 22, with the presence of the Omicron variant. Of 621 prisoners tested, 168 were found to be positive.
Library, gym, work in the workshops… All collective activities have been abolished. Full suits and FFP2 masks have been distributed to guards when they are in the detention buildings and to detainees who continue to work (laundry, kitchen, distribution of meals, etc.). And the visiting rooms have been removed for positive detainees and contact cases. For maintained visiting rooms, a Plexiglas wall is in place over the entire height.
For all cases detected on December 30, isolation must end on January 9. Alleviations could be decided “if within 15 days there is no epidemic resumption“, explains Michaël Merci.
863 contaminations were detected nationally, out of a total of 70,000 detainees. There are also 1,029 cases out of around 40,000 personnel, according to the latest figures from the ministry, as of January 4. In total, 31 establishments are in a cluster situation, that is to say with at least three simultaneous cases.
The Chancellery acknowledges that the vaccination coverage rate is “lower than that of the general population“, because of a “reluctance of the penal population to be vaccinated“. 47% of prisoners have a complete vaccination schedule against 76.9% for the general population, according to figures communicated by the Ministry of Health on Thursday January 6.
Dominique Simonnot, the General Controller of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL), was originally scheduled to attend an eloquence contest in Villepinte on Thursday, “obviously canceled“. “Added to the virus is the overcrowding of prisons, it’s intolerable, she denounces. Continuing to send people to prison when we know the situation is incredible… The magistrates have their share of responsibility.“
“I don’t know if we realize the conditions in which prisoners live, while the virus is circulating, she continues. There is something unworthy, indecent. In the new districts, there is no longer the means to isolate the detainees long enough, we can no longer respect the periods of isolation. And then, in some remand prisons, there are three people to a cell.“As for the vaccination rate, lower than that of the general population, Dominique Simonnot recalls having”requested that the vaccine be given priority in closed places. For both prisoners and prison staff, the risks of contamination are enormous.“.
“Today in Villepinte, the situation is supposed to be under control, but at what cost? asks the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty. All activities are cancelled. Detainees who write to us tell us that they have asked their families not to come because it is too hard.“
Dominique Simonnot specifies having seized the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti. “Ministers must act. The prescriptions taken by Nicole Belloubet in the spring of 2020 had made it possible to decelerate the prison population, with 58,100 inmates in July 2020. We rose to 70,000 inmates in December. And I dread the electoral period which promises to be very tough, with irresponsible speeches. Unfortunately we are not going in the direction of reason“, she believes.
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