France takes action to tackle prison suicides

Comment

France likes to pride itself on being the leader in Europe in various areas;
Tourism, population growth, culture, football, rugby, social security;
You name it France is at the top of the league.
And they are probably right.

However there is the other, darker, side of the medal.
France is often top of the league for all that does not work;
Such as prison overcrowding and conditions and probably as a result the number of prison suicides.

Its always been an overlooked area. The money goes elsewhere and prisoners are just the collateral damage of the national budget.

They have also never decided what prisons are for. To punish, to put people away or to re-educate prisoners to rejoin society. They just bundle them all together along with thousands of presumably innocent prisoners awaiting trial who become contaminated before they are even sentenced.

They do not understand the American system of bail to relieve overcrowding, would dearly like the Scandinavian model but shudder at the cost and debate endlessly on the matter. Well they have done away with the guillotine and the hell hole of French Guyana and Devil's Island at least.

France takes action to tackle prison suicides
19/08 07:36 CET


As the suicide rate soars in France’s overcrowded prisons, the country’s justice minister has announced measures aimed at stemming the tide.
Michele Alliot-Marie unveiled her action plan after a visit to a jail in the central city of Orleans.
“Every suicide is always a suicide too many,” she told reporters. “Furthermore, there are patterns where we are seeing these figures rise again so we have to take action.”
Among the statistics that have set alarm bells ringing, there were 115 prison suicides for the whole of 2008 and already this year there have been 81. In the latest case, a 37-year-old man was found hanged at a jail in Marseille.


Source

http://www.euronews.net/2009/08/19/france-takes-action-to-tackle-prison-suicides/