Following the death of M. at the Vincennes Detention Center last May, we recently learned that another detainee passed away at the center. He was sent to the hospital, apparently after a suicide attempt, and died there 10 days later, on August 21.
According to an interview with the coordinator of ASSFAM (the organization that intervenes in the detention center), published by Radio France, the doctor at the center had issued two certificates indicating the incompatibility of the person’s health condition with detention. According to the same coordinator, ASSFAM had requested the release of the detainee, which was rejected by the Judge of Liberties and Detention (JLD), both in occasion of the first trial, and of appeal. They had also reached the prefecture to request release, but the prefecture had refused. Finally, on August 20, the Judge of Liberties and Detention had further extended the detention, even though the detainee was at the hospital; he passed away the following day.
The prefecture, as well as the different judges who rejected the release requests and extended the detention, were well aware that the detainee was in critical health conditions. The doctor at the center had said so, ASSFAM had said so, the hospital had said so. The detainee had probably mentioned it himself, although this is likely to have made little difference, given that detainees are not allowed to talk during hearings before the Judge of Liberties and Detention.
Therefore, the judges, the prefecture, and the police deliberately decided to ignore the situation, and did not hesitate to put their stamp on a piece of paper which stated, once again, that everything was alright, and that Mr. X could go for another round of 30 days of detention. Are they even aware that he died the following day?
It’s infuriating, for him and his family first and foremost, and for all those deaths in detention that go unnoticed; it’s infuriating to see that no one is held responsible for this detainee’s death, neither the institutions and the detention system, nor the individuals representing them.
It’s also infuriating to see that ASSFAM didn’t think it urgent to communicate about what happened until September 6, 15 days after the death, briefly mentioning the facts in response to a journalist’s question, hid at the very end of an article. They also didn’t care to inform the other detainees about the death of the fellow detainee.
This is the second death in 3 months at the Vincennes Detention Center. Police violence and humiliation continue every day, despite the struggles led by the detainees (2 hunger strikes in recent weeks).
Expulsions, solitary confinement, rotten food and pills are the daily reality for those held in detention centers. We don’t have much information yet about this death. But we know that in these carceral spaces, no death is a mere accident : it’s the detention center itself that keeps on killing.
Down with detention centers, down with complicit justice!