As Europe's Prisons Fill Up, France Tries a Different Method

 

A cook named William is working on making a sweet treat. Another is busily preparing paella, made of seafood¹ and rice. They and other cooks are moving around a big kitchen in a hurry.

They are not getting ready to serve guests at a restaurant, however. They are prisoners working in a French jail.

The Eysses detention² center is in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, a town in southwestern France. Eysses prisoners like 32-year-old William are part of the French government’s efforts to reduce the number of repeat criminals. Officials hope this would ease the country’s problem with overcrowding in prisons.

The number of inmates³ in France has risen from 48,000 in 2001 to almost 70,000 today.

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron released measures meant to fight the country’s prison problems. The plan included reconsidering short-term prison sentences in favor of home detention. He also proposed building 7,000 new cells over the next four years to ease overcrowding. Other ideas included creating jobs for people recently released from prison as well as assistance programs for France’s growing prison population.

Some say Macron’s crime plan does not do enough, especially when it comes to fighting radicalism⁵, which is spreading in French prisons.

But his plan has drawn⁷ support for pushing for experimental prison programs, such as the one at Eysses. The program is called Respect. It is based on a Spanish method that calls for rewarding prisoners with more freedom in exchange for good behavior.

Eighteen prisons have used the Respect program since 2015. Another 20 are expected to start using the program over the next two years.

The Respect program operates in only one part of Eysses. Becoming a part of the program is not easy. And prisoners who are accepted must sign a contract that lists several rules. Breaking those rules means risking expulsion from the program.

The program’s rules include spending 25 hours every week either working or attending educational or health-related activities. The inmates must also clean common spaces. If they follow the rules, they are rewarded with keys to their own cells and a feelings of freedom.

Philippe Sperandio is head of the Eysses detention center. He said it is still too early to know whether the program is helping⁸ to reduce the number of people who return to prison after being released. But he has seen a decrease in violence among inmates.

Sperandio said one prisoner that was about to be released told him that he had never experienced anything like Respect before.

“Will that help ensure that he won’t come back? I don’t know.” Sperandio said. “But he sees things differently. He knows what he’s lost.”

For William, the Respect program is very different from anything he has experienced during his 10 years in prison. He said he has a sense of “liberty within the walls.”

The program has helped create a stronger connection between Eysses guards and prisoners, as well. In the prison’s small garden, guard Carol Cerjak helps prisoners pull out the last of the winter vegetables.

Cerjak says she rarely sees violence when she is working at Eysses. “You see a prisoner coming here, and a week later, they’re completely different.”

This is sharply⁹ different from some other French prisons. Attacks carried out by radicalized prisoners led to a nationwide guard strike in January over prison conditions.

A recent report by the human rights group Council of Europe listed French prisons as among the most overcrowded in Western Europe. It also found France is one of only a few countries where prison populations are rising.

While Danish and Dutch prisons average one prisoner per jail cell, France averages 117 inmates per 100 cells. Overcrowding is especially severe in areas like Paris.

The Respect program is not the main answer for France’s problem with radicalism in its prisons. The country counts 1,600 radicalized prisoners. For them, French officials plan to build more cells and isolated¹⁰ areas to help stop the spread of radical⁶ Islam.

French Justice Ministry¹² representative Youssef Badr said the smaller cells and one-on-one attention for radicalized prisoners are part of an effort to rehabilitate¹³ them.

Experts point to Denmark as an example of an open system that could also help fight radicalism. Danish inmates wear their own clothes, take part in sports and cook their own food to prepare for life outside.

At Eysses, inmate⁴ Jean-Luc is preparing the prison garden for spring planting. After 29 years behind bars, he is a believer of Respect’s ideas.

“I’ve been in some where even a dog wouldn’t enter,” he says. “Here, Respect gives us back our dignity.”

I’m Susan Shand. And I'm Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

restaurant - n. place where you can buy and eat prepared food.

detention - n. the act of keeping someone in a prison

inmate - n. a person who is kept in a prison or mental hospital?

liberty - n. freedom

radicalism - n. the opinions and behavior of people who favor extreme changes especially in government

reward - v. to give something to someone for something good that has been done

garden - n. an area of ground where plants (such as flowers or vegetables) are grown

dignity - n. the quality of being worthy¹⁴ of honor or respect

isolate¹¹ - v. to keep separate

rehabilitate - v. to bring someone back to normal

1 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

2 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

3 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

5 radicalism   

n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义

参考例句：

• His radicalism and refusal to compromise isolated him. 他的激进主义与拒绝妥协使他受到孤立。
• Education produced intellectual ferment and the temptations of radicalism. 教育带来知识界的骚动，促使激进主义具有了吸引力。

6 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

10 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

11 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

12 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

13 rehabilitate   

vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造

参考例句：

• There was no money to rehabilitate the tower.没有资金修复那座塔。
• He used exercise programmes to rehabilitate the patients.他采用体育锻炼疗法使患者恢复健康。

14 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。