The problem is not new, but it is starting to spread. The Seysses remand center in the south of Toulouse is on the edge of the abyss. With 600 places for 900 inmates, the prison is packed. Detainees sleep on mattresses on the floor, officers are overwhelmed and understaffed.
After an unexpected check this summer in Seysses prison, the finding was madet “a large number of serious dysfunctions which make it possible to consider that the living conditions (of the detainees) are unworthy”. The Toulouse Bar Association has taken legal action to advance the case.
Supervisors await a reaction from elected officials
Jérôme Combelles has been a prison officer since 2006 at Toulouse-Seysses. He describes a catastrophic situation for both the detainees and the guards: “We are asking for staff to work on more security because we are facing the cells of three detainees under pressure.s. The occupancy rate is too high, we see rats in the corridors! We may need to increase electronic bracelets to unclog prisons. “
One of the worst remand centers in the region
The Prison Observatory and the Bar Association have requested the application of around thirty measures before the Toulouse administrative court for a resumption of more dignified conditions as quickly as possible. A deliberation is expected between Monday and Tuesday in Toulouse to finally initiate a “rescue of these detainees” and these prison officers.
According to Pierre Dunac, the president of Toulouse, 25% of the mattresses on the floor are concentrated in Seysses when the residents live together in 13m². Half of the detainees who sleep on a mattress on the floor are in the Occitanie region