When the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté (general inspector of all places of deprivation of liberty[i]), was set up in July 2008, it had been indicated that a hundred and fifty establishments would be visited each year.
For one year, a hundred and fifty-eight visits have been exactly achieved , in each case with several controllers, for a duration going from a few hours (for the places of customs retention for instance) to six days, for settlements of great dimension or with hard difficulties. These visits are divided into three sets: a third of buildings of police custody, a third of prisons, the remainder in establishments of health, cells in courts, closed educational centers…
What was announced publicly from the beginning is carried out. This way of working will be continued.
Within the same time, the Contrôleur general received 532 letters, the majority from prisoners or their close relations, some from people who are hospitalized without their assent. The rythm of these letters was twenty-three per month during the first three months of activity; it was fifty-seven from April to June 2009.
A deepened, diverse and constant relation is established between the Contrôleur général and, not only people who are deprived of liberty, but also, of course, the staff in charge of their monitoring, their rehabilitation, theircare. The long interviews which are made with the ones as with the others, if they must remain confidential- the Contrôleur général gets very busy there -, allow his information to be completed.
That’s why, in one year of work, the Contrôleur général could have a precise idea of the situation in places he, or his team, visited. Six times, he gave of it a public recommendation. After each visit, on a systematic way, he informed to the interested ministers. He synthesized what it thought in his annual report, put on line beside this leading article. One can therefore criticize his opinions, but not to accuse him of being naive in his remarks.
This wide knowledge in the situation of people who are deprived of liberty, the places where they are, and the working conditions of staff would be pointless, apart from acting as a lever of the essential transformations which have to be reached.
[i] The Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté is, in France, the national preventive mechanism ( NPM), under the optional protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT).
