The prison blockade continues. Two days after the death of two prison officers in the attack on a prison transfer van in Eure, prison staff are “mixed”, Thursday May 16, in the face of government promises to improve their security, after the meeting union representatives Wednesday in Paris with the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
In Caen, the penitentiary center where the victims worked has been blocked since 6:30 a.m. by pallets and around forty agents. At the other end of the city, in the new center of Caen-Ifs, nearly seventy agents were burning tires, their faces closed, marked by mourning and fatigue. “The reception of the announcements is mixed locally, it does not seem sufficient for the moment and we are suspicious,” confided Loïc Boyer, local secretary of FO-Justice.
Union representatives had called for the blockages to be maintained while awaiting a written agreement which would ratify the commitments made by Eric Dupond-Moretti the day before. This “record of decisions”, which was sent to them Thursday morning, plans in particular to equip agents with long weapons during transfers and to limit the most dangerous extractions, by using videoconferencing or moving magistrates to prison. .
A “minimum service” guaranteed
For the agents of the Lorient penitentiary center, who were able to consult the document, these decisions respond to “claims that we have always [made]”, according to Nicolas Parra, representative of FO-Justice. In this establishment, still blocked by around sixty agents, a “return to normal” is expected in the afternoon, according to the trade unionist.
But for Ludovic Motheron, head of the CGT-Pénitentiaire in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, there is still “nothing concrete”. “They promised us a few little things to try to take the pressure off a little,” but nothing immediate. At the Mont-de-Marsan penitentiary center (Landes), “we have toughened up the movement,” he declared. This is also the case at the Roanne detention center in the Loire, reported Jean-Louis Picornell, UFAP-UNSA representative of the establishment: “A food delivery truck had to turn around this morning. »
In Provence-Alpes-Côted’Azur, “all establishments are blocked” with just a “minimum service” provided, according to Jessy Zagari, FO regional delegate. “Colleagues are studying the list of proposals and if it is approved we will pack it up, but for the moment many establishments would rather see additional points and measures added,” he said. At the Alençon-Condé-sur-Sarthe penitentiary center (Orne), the local FO-Justice secretary, Kevin Gripon, was expecting around a hundred colleagues for the mobilization. “We know the administration, they can promise you great things and then we never see anything coming,” he declared.
