CGLPL Finds “Systemic Violence” in Condé‑sur‑Sarthe High‑Security Prison

Overview

• The Contrôleure générale des lieux de privation de liberté transmitted an urgent report to the Justice Ministry on June 9 documenting repeated humiliations, abusive body searches and practices the office calls “systemic violence.”
• Inspectors described concrete methods of abuse that include masked officers who cannot be identified, strip searches that sometimes involved touching of buttocks and genitals, night wake‑ups with lights and noise, and punitive meal practices that withheld food unless detainees touched a basket.
• A criminal inquiry is open after six detainees filed a complaint alleging violence by people in authority while the Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has replied that no judicial finding of rights violations has yet been established.
• The ministry has ordered an internal control and doctrine evaluation mission to visit Condé‑sur‑Sarthe this summer and the CGLPL has asked the prison administration to inspect responsibilities and stop the reported practices immediately.
• The QLCO unit was created after the 2025 anti‑narcotics law to isolate suspected organized‑crime figures and held 38 of 40 places at the time of the May inspection, raising questions about how the isolation model and masked procedures affect detainee dignity and staff accountability.