France : Indignité carcérale

"Traitement inhumain et dégradant". La formule revient à plusieurs reprises dans le rapport que le Comité pour la prévention de la torture et des peines ou traitements dégradants (CPT) du Conseil de l'Europe va rendre public. Ce ne sont pas les geôles d'un Etat mis au ban de la communauté internationale pour ses atteintes répétées aux droits de l'homme qui se trouvent ainsi fustigées. Non, le rapport traite de la France et de ses prisons - où sont enfermées, dans des conditions souvent indignes, 64 000 personnes, soit 120 détenus pour 100 places en moyenne - et, plus particulièrement, des problèmes de santé, de placement à l'isolement et, encore une fois, de surpopulation carcérale.

Les observations des visiteurs du CPT, qui se sont rendus dans plusieurs prisons françaises à l'automne 2006, sont accablantes. Sait-on qu'en France, en 2007, des détenus "particulièrement surveillés", quand ils reçoivent des soins dans leurs chambres sécurisées, sont "systématiquement fixés à leurs lits sans interruption, le plus souvent avec des entraves aux chevilles et main menottée au cadre du lit" ? Sait-on que, dans la patrie de la Révolution française, qui avait proclamé que le système carcéral avait la double mission de punir et d'amender le condamné, des détenus en attente d'une hospitalisation psychiatrique, en situation de "souffrance aiguë", peuvent être "obligés de rester nus" dans leur cellule d'isolement, "soumis à un contrôle visuel régulier du personnel pénitentiaire" ?

Le CPT relève "l'état dramatique" de la psychiatrie carcérale. Il s'alarme des abus du placement à l'isolement administratif. Il s'inquiète de l'organisation des "rotations de sécurité", qui conduisent à changer régulièrement de prison des détenus réputés dangereux ; ces transferts peuvent se révéler nécessaires mais leur succession, "dans certaines circonstances, constitue un traitement inhumain et dégradant". Le CPT affiche aussi sa préoccupation sur des questions qui touchent à la vie quotidienne carcérale, depuis les fouilles corporelles et celles des cellules jusqu'aux violences entre détenus, qui ne peuvent que se développer du fait de la surpopulation. La loi sur la récidive, votée en juillet, pourrait conduire à l'incarcération de 10 000 personnes supplémentaires...

Depuis le témoignage accablant, en janvier 2000, du docteur Véronique Vasseur, alors médecin-chef à la Santé, Le Monde n'a cessé, à travers ses enquêtes et une dizaine d'éditoriaux, d'attirer l'attention sur cette indignité carcérale. Nicolas Sarkozy promet une démocratie "irréprochable". Sans entretenir trop d'illusions, souhaitons que cette promesse se traduise dans la loi pénitentiaire en préparation. Afin qu'on ne puisse plus reprocher à nos prisons d'être épinglées pour traitements "inhumains et dégradants".

Article paru dans l'édition du 07.12.07.

Source : LeMonde.fr

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