In Guadeloupe, “dramatic” overcrowding within the Baie-Mahault penitentiary heart, alerts the jail controller | EUROtoday

Overcrowding on the Baie-Mahault penitentiary heart, in Guadeloupe, is “dramatically high”alerted, Tuesday January 20, the overall controller of locations of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL), noting particularly that greater than 160 detainees sleep there on mattresses on the bottom, typically “installed on the table and the refrigerator”, lack of area.

“Overcrowding is dramatically high and leads to serious violations of the fundamental rights of detainees”notes the CGLPL in its “emergency recommendations” revealed in Official Journal. During a go to within the fall of 2025, controllers famous an occupancy charge of 251% on the males’s remand heart, with 435 inmates for 173 locations. Some 167 prisoners had been sleeping “on a mattress placed on the floor or on precarious furniture”in keeping with the report.

In nearly all cells, prisoners have entry to “less than 3 square meters of individual surface”threshold under which the case regulation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) presumes a violation of elementary rights. “Sometimes, there is no space left to move around and it even happens that there is insufficient floor space to accommodate a mattress”writes the CGLPL, which accompanies its report with pictures displaying particularly an inmate sleeping on a mattress straddling a desk and a fridge.

Sanitary circumstances are significantly worrying, with dilapidated premises, mould and a scarcity of privateness in sanitary areas, notes the report. The laundry service is defective, forcing inmates to clean their sheets within the sinks in chilly water.

Repeated violence

The report additionally mentions repeated violence. From January to September 2025, 154 incidents of violence had been recorded in remand facilities, together with ten involving weapons. One inmate had his jaw damaged, one other was discovered “the bloody face” throughout the go to.

The CGLPL is especially alarmed by the circumstances of detention of minors, “unsuitable”and heavy “deficiencies” of their care, noting that these adolescents bear systematic full searches, obtain solely 4 hours of classes per week as an alternative of the twelve deliberate, and have a courtyard “unworthy”with out shelter or water level.

The CGLPL requires “urgent measures” to cut back overcrowding, additionally noting that the continuing building of 300 extra locations on the Baie-Mahault penitentiary heart doesn’t present, for instance, for any exercise rooms.

Prison overcrowding is frequently denounced in Guadeloupe. It additionally hits the Basse-Terre jail, whose inmates joined the brand new remand heart in November which had been below building for a number of years.