Basse-Terre prison inmates were moved to a new modern structure

High security transfer to Guadeloupe. The 211 inmates at the Basse-Terre pre-prison detention center, which was dilapidated and slated for reconstruction, were moved on Sunday, November 16, to a new prison structure, in the same district in the heart of the capital, the prefecture said.

The operation deployed many police officers, gendarmes, firefighters, members of the prosecutor’s office and prison administration agents from Guadeloupe but also from Martinique, the state service said in a press release. The area was closed.

The prisoners were moved to a “new modern structure, equipped with the latest security technology”Who “will allow better accommodation conditions” for prisoners “and better working conditions” for supervisors, according to the prefecture of Guadeloupe.

The Basse-Terre pre-trial detention center is located in a former monastery hospital built in the 17th century.^e century, converted into a prison at the end of the 18th century^e century. He was “notorious for conditions of detention, overcrowding leading to increased violence”and sometimes appointed “like a penal colony”recalled Jean-Jacques Urvoas, then Minister of Justice, in July 2016 when announcing the construction of the new structure.

Excessive density

Last July, prison guards carried out an operation “death prison”worried about future working conditions in the new structure.

“We have heard about staff shortages: the team has been reinforced by six people, out of the ten we needed”Frantz Sapor, local secretary of the Justice union UFAP-UNSA, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday. In the old place, the prisoners sleep “Up to 16 people per dormitory. In new dormitories with 100 places, there are two per cell, because the number exceeds 200 people”union officials said.

Prison overcrowding is frequently criticized in Guadeloupe by guards unions and the International Prison Observatory (OIP). This also happened at the Baie-Mahault prison center, where the cell occupancy rate reached 149%.

Basse-Terre Prison will be demolished to be rebuilt and could accommodate 300 places by 2028, including a new structure. The Baie-Mahault prison center is also being expanded.