We, close to detainees, are launching today a call for signatures of a manifesto for the recognition of our role and our rights.
In France, nearly 90,000 people are detained. That is more than 500,000 parents, spouses, children, friends affected by detention because prison does not stop at its walls: it takes us in and constrains us too, loved ones too often invisible, stigmatized and ignored.
Our role is decisive. Every day, we provide essential moral and material support. We take care of the administrative procedures that confinement makes impossible and, above all, we are often the last link in the social bond, recognized as a determining factor in the reintegration process.
However, on the ground, everything conspires to weaken us and make maintaining links ever more difficult: late or inaccessible information, disparate rules depending on the prison establishments, logistical obstacles and exorbitant costs, and all in a climate of contempt and suspicion towards us. The punishment becomes, in fact, collective.
We demand change. We ask that the importance of our role be recognized and that the rights that legitimately result from it be recognized. This involves, among other things, being able to benefit from a right to information and to be consulted during decisions that directly affect the life and future of our loved one and, consequently, ours. We demand an end to arbitrariness, because what is a right can no longer depend on the goodwill of a counter, an establishment or a moment.
We cannot talk about prison without talking about loved ones. Recognizing our role means giving a framework and legitimacy to a responsibility already exercised in the shadows. It is also opening the way to another way of conceiving punishment, in dignity and the real possibility of rebuilding a future together.
We call on all those concerned, supporters, organizations to sign our Manifesto and relay this call for signatures. Together, let’s bring into law what reality already imposes: without loved ones, there is neither maintenance of links nor real reintegration possible; It is time for our rights to finally be recognized.
Contacts presse : Sophie Deschamps • 07 60 49 19 96 • sophie.deschamps@oip.org
