The decision to build the second Gard prison in the Alès sector, and more precisely in Boisset-et-Gaujac, must be confirmed by the Keeper of the Seals, Nicole Belloubet during his visit to Nîmes on Monday. A decision, revealed last week by Objectif Gard, which is far from unanimous. In addition to the opposition of the commune and its inhabitants, the lawyers of the bar of Nîmes are not at least not at all convinced by the choice of this location. The president of the bar of Nîmes, Jean-Marie Chabaud, would have preferred to see this second prison be built in Nîmes, and in particular evokes questions of security. He is the guest at 7:50 a.m.
Objectif Gard: The future second prison prison will therefore be built in the village of Boisset-et-Gaujac, near Alès. What does this decision inspire in you?
Me Jean-Marie Chabaud: First, I found it surprising that there were press leaks while the justice system was still in a degraded operating mode. I got in touch with the town hall of Nîmes, which had no more information than I did. What I do know is that the Nîmes case was planned on land located behind the police academy and therefore not far from the administrative detention center, in a security center. The second site planned was located at Camp des garrigues, where residents of the charming village of Boisset-et-Gaujac were not bothered. As a lawyer, I plead for a Nîmes installation, for safety and efficiency reasons.
On the security aspect, a prison in Boisset-et-Gaujac will cause inmate transits, knowing that an inmate does not only go out to be tried. For efficiency, Alès certainly has a criminal court, but at the investigative level Nîmes has a criminal pole which is no longer in Alès. And, wherever the detainee is placed, for the call he must come to Nîmes.
Some, like MP Françoise Dumas, were against the choice of the Alès sector, arguing in particular, in addition to the question of security, that 80% of judicial needs concerned the southern part of the department. Does it stand?
Yes. Whether you put the prison at Vigan, Bagnols / Cèze or Alès, there will always be a centrifugal force towards Nîmes. The district of Nîmes goes from Grau-du-Roi to Pont-Saint-Esprit, with very strong needs. And we are 450 lawyers in the Gard, 400 in Nîmes and 50 in Alès. It must be taken into account.
To come back to security issues, detainee transits will cause escape risks and coordination problems. And transportation is staff and money. The hours that the officials will spend on escorting, they will not spend on anything else. It increases the risk of difficulties by removing the accused from his judge, it makes sense. When we discuss with judicial and administrative actors, we realize that these findings are shared by all.
And apparently Boisset-et-Gaujac is hostile to this construction. However, prison overcrowding must be stopped in the Gard, Nîmes prison is occupied up to 270%. I fear that the situation in Boisset-et-Gaujac will delay the project and that it will end with a ZAD as in Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
On the side of Alès, it is explained that the fact of obtaining the construction of this prison will save the court …
I do not believe that. The court of Alès is made to meet the needs of the judicial activity of Alès. It’s not the prison that will create judicial activity in Alès. And what worries us is to see the development of a technique that we dislike: video-hearing. I would not want, in the light of these geographical or coordination difficulties, to tell us that we have no escort, and that we will have to do with cameras with the judge in Nîmes and the detainee in Boisset -and-Gaujac. It is not a method and it would be a disaster for the exercise of the rights of defense. The bars of Nîmes, Alès and France are against, moreover.
This second prison is accompanied by renovations and enlargement of that of Nîmes …
Yes, it has been announced, but we do not know if it will be confirmed by the minister. The prison of Nîmes is in a lamentable state. As for the enlargement on site, it is a bit of a patchwork on a wooden leg. To resolve the difficulty, you have to think about two remand houses. In Nîmes, we also have detainees who report to Montpellier or Avignon and, wherever the second prison is located, there will be detainees tried in Nîmes.
I think that objective criteria would rather plead for a Nîmes solution. If the choice of Boisset-et-Gaujac is confirmed, the criteria that led to it seem mysterious to me. I would like to be sure that all the studies have been done.
Interview by Thierry Allard
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