His response to the mayor of Béziers (Hérault) Robert Ménard, this Tuesday, May 13 at the TF1 set, surprised a lot. While he was invited to express himself in the proposal made last April by Gérald Darmanin to have the detention costs to the French prisoners, Emmanuel Macron said it was favorable to “rent” places of prison abroad.
“Yes, we will rent, if necessary, the imprisonment where they are available,” he said without specifying which countries could be asked by France.
“There is no taboo,” added Emmanuel Macron. An idea that the Head of State described as “pragmatic” and said that he could “solve the problem of prison overcrowding” in France.
Emmanuel Macron also made sure he wanted to “change the rules” for the construction of 5,000 places in prison in the project, to have “lighter and faster structures to build.”
“This crazy project does not respond to reality on the ground”
After the announcements of the President of the Republic about the prisons, Dominique Simonnot, general controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLLP), asks.
“It is not the brand of a big country to send its prisoners to other places that in their national territory. It is as if we were carrying out an impossible delegation of the French sovereign power,” denounces.
Proven by Belgium in the Netherlands from 2010 to 2016, this extraordinary “rent” with 650 places cost almost 300 million euros for the Belgian government. A pharaonic sum, therefore, for a “totally wobble project”, according to Dominique Simonnot. “The Belgians have returned, it was very bad, especially with respect to the impossible to maintain the link between the prisoners and their loved ones,” he entrusts BFMTV.com.
A rather determined opinion about the question, in every way, similar to that of Estelle Carraud, general secretary of the National Union of all personnel of the prison administration (SNEPAP-FSU).
“Who will worry? Where will the prisoners send and with what money? What language will the supervisors, supervisors and agents speak?” Ask Estelle Carraud.
So many questions that, in the eyes of the trade unionist, will remain “inevitably unanswered.” “We go directly to the wall and policies underestimate the responsibility of their speech,” annoyed. “This crazy project does not respond to reality in the field, but to more political perspectives.”
Other possible solutions?
For Estelle Carraud, renting places in prison abroad will no longer relieve the problem of prison overcrowding, than the construction of new structures in the national territory. The trade unionist even believes that he is presented to public opinion “only a small part of the problem.”
“Governments have continued and have always preferred punishment. However, there are other solutions, such as sanctions or restrictions of probation in an open environment,” he explains.
And Estelle Carraud goes even further. She recommends “a total change in the paradigm”, with the implementation of a “numerus clausus” for each prison. “Prison is today the reference penalty in France, only here, deprivation of liberty is a strong measure that is not suitable for all situations,” he adds.
A point of view that SNEPAP general shares with Joaquim Pueyo, Mayor (PS) of Alençon and former director of the Remand Fleury-Mérogis center. “Qualify in spite of everything, since the construction of places in France remains necessary. However, a sanction is never static and it is necessary to reintegrate,” specifies, citing geographical and practical obstacles for the realization of probation reports from abroad.
“There are no more arrested in France than in other places in Europe. There are only fewer places and enclosing three people in 9m2, it is a double, even a triple unacceptable penalty,” he concludes.
According to AFP, on April 1, 2025, 82,921 people were arrested in French prisons for a total of 62,358 operational places. Or a global prison of 133%. “And the families of the detainees should pay an additional cost of the detention costs? Difficult to imagine,” adds Estelle Carraud.
Source: BFM TV
