“Human-sized prisons” for short sentences: what do these establishments wanted by Gérald Darmanin consist of ?

On December 25, 2024, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin called for the creation of “human-sized prisons”. What does this type of establishment dedicated to short sentences consist of??

He would like prisons “on a human scale, all over the country”.Recently appointed Minister of Justice, former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that he wanted to develop a very specific type of penitentiary establishment. Here is what this could look like.

Double objective

The concept is similar to the “open prisons”, well known elsewhere in Europe. The aim is, on the one hand, not to mix the least dangerous prisoners with those at greatest risk. And on the other hand to optimize reintegration.

By creating specific establishments for short sentences, the Minister of Justice would also like to relieve congestion in French prisons, which are plagued by alarming prison overcrowding.

“However, saying that we are going to build prisons without watchtowers and barbed wire, we are perhaps not going to get carried away either, a prison remains a prison”, qualifies to France Info Wilfried Fonck, national secretary of the Autonomous Federal Penitentiary Union Unsa Justice.

The aim of this prison model is “to adapt the care” of each prisoner. “Let's stop building large structures, trying to take care of the entire prison population in a single way”, he insists.

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Two examples in France

In Dordogne, the semi-open detention center of Mauzac only accommodates perpetrators of sexual offenses, note France 3. Inaugurated by Robert Badinter, it is designed as a small village and aims to develop a social life inside and an openness to the outside. A fence has replaced the traditional perimeter wall and the cells are not closed during the day, allowing the prisoners to go about their activities.

Same thing in Haute-Corse, in Aléria, a prison without bars or peepholes. The prisoners have the keys to their cells, details France 3. Three-quarters of them are sex offenders who are serving the remainder of their sentence voluntarily.

A European model

According to Dominique Simonnot, the general inspector of places of deprivation of liberty, it would be good to draw inspiration from European models. Like the Netherlands, which focuses on a “person-centred approach”. Based on the principle that a “prisoner who finds himself without a job, without a home and with debts after his detention is more likely to make mistakes than a person who has his affairs in order”.

On the website of the Ministry of Justice, the Dutch government explains that prisoners complete their sentence in three stages. They start with a “classic” detention and remain in their cell outside of the hours of activities to which they are entitled. Secondly, subject to good behaviour, they can participate in other activities that are part of the rehabilitation process. Towards the end of their sentences, they can benefit from outings outside.

Other countries are promoting these more modern approaches. This is the case in Finland, where thirteen of the twenty-eight existing prisons are open. Enough to revive an eternal debate: do we lock people up to punish or to protect them ?