UK Edition
French prison guards stage strike complaining of poor security and radicalised inmates
French prison guards vowed to “totally block” the country’s jails on Monday as they launched a rare nationwide strike over staffing levels following several attacks by radicalised inmates.
The guards burned tyres and erected barricades in front of several prisons as unions claimed 115 of France’s 188 prisons were blocked, while penitentiary authorities put the figure at 50.
Yesterday’s strike marked an intensification of protests, which erupted after a convicted al-Qaeda extremist attacked guards in a high-security facility with a razor blade, injuring three of them.
Guards complain that rules are too lax for violent and radicalised inmates in French prisons, reputed to be a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
Of France’s 70,000-odd prisoners, some 504 are convicted or awaiting trial on terrorism charges and 1,200 others are under surveillance for radicalisation.
Last week, three inmates at a prison on Corsica attacked two guards with a knife, wounding one of them seriously. One was under surveillance for Islamic radicalisation.
In the northern Calais region, a male and a female guard were treated in hospital for injuries on Sunday after being attacked by a prisoner with an iron table leg.
On Monday, around 150 guards continued to block access to the Fleury-Merogis prison south of Paris - Europe's biggest - with tyres and pallets.
The justice ministry has proposed creating 1,100 guard jobs over four years, improving security for guards and creating a special regime that allows for a "total lockdown" on the most dangerous detainees, measures dismissed by the guards as insufficient.
"We will not be used as cannon fodder. We won't give an inch," Yoan Karar, an official for the Force Ouvriere union told CNews. His union called for higher wages and 2,400 more staff, saying that attacks on security staff had hit 4,000 a year.
"You cannot put a guard in charge of 100 or 150 prisoners and just give him a whistle," said Mr Karar, calling for guards to be armed with taser guns.
As union leaders held talks with justice minister Nicole Belloubet, police were dispatched to four jails to replace absent guards.
Guards have long complained of low pay, insufficient staffing and overcrowding.
The average occupancy rate in French prisons is 118 per cent, but at some prisons such as Fresnes near Paris it has risen to around 200 per cent.
President Macron has blasted the overcrowding as "disgraceful”. He has vowed to create 15,000 new places and make "massive" use of community service or freeing prisoners fitted with an electronic bracelet.