Detention Sound blocking windows reduce airflow. This summer, several prisoners were sanctioned by the prison administration for having degraded them
This summer, several detainees were sanctioned by the prison administration for having degraded the soundproof windows. — Mathilde Ceilles
- Seven detainees from the Baumettes penitentiary center obtained, on Tuesday, from the Marseille administrative court the appointment of an expert responsible for verifying the sanitary conditions of their detention.
- They complain about the anti-noise windows, which reduce air circulation, and cause a suffocating effect in the summer.
- This summer, several inmates were sanctioned by the prison administration for having degraded them.
They suffocated all summer without being able to open the window of their cell: seven inmates of the Baumettes penitentiary center obtained, on Tuesday, from the administrative court of Marseille the appointment of an expert in charge of to verify the sanitary conditions of their detention. The inmates denounce the installation, in 2019, of anti-noise windows in 87 cells in the women’s quarter in order to reduce the noise pollution of Baumettes 2, a prison commissioned in 2017, whose neighborhood complains regularly.
This device consists of a fixed glazed part and an opening part but which overlooks a metal plate pierced with holes with lamellae at the top. outside. Several inmates have been sanctioned this summer; by the prison administration for having degraded them. Their testimonies were attached to; the request filed by their lawyer Emmanuel Docteur. “I feel like I never have a fresh look,” said one. “I needed to breathe,” said another.
If these windows have reduced the nuisances denounced by local residents, they have been reduced. criticized by the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty; in a March 2020 report. The controllers indeed recommended “an additional development that must imperatively and quickly be put in place to compensate for the effect of confinement and lack of air, pending ;another system for opening windows”.
A measurement of the flow of fresh air at the come
In a brief to the court, the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti asked; the court to reject this request for an expert’s report, emphasizing that “the supply of natural air from the acoustic frames is in accordance with; regulations.” In her order, the interim relief judge noted that the instruction did not show that “the facilities and installations mentioned by the Minister (of Justice) would be sufficient to remedy in particular the lack of air and ventilation”.
The expert who must submit his report within four months will have to measure the minimum fresh air flow per hour with regard to the health standards in force. The lawyer Emmanuel Docteur says he is already “Pleased with a decision that shows the court is interested in the undignified conditions of detention” of his clients. The Marseille lawyer only regrets that this expertise did not take place during the summer.
After a visit to the establishment, at the end of August, the bâ ;tonnier of the Marseille bar association, Jean-Raphaël Fernandez, declared in La Provence : “We will not be able, I believe, for é tees and summers, leave people with such high temperatures.