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considered to be in need of psychiatric care, can be a form of inhuman, cruel or degrading
treatment. He stated that isolation “should be kept to a minimum, used in very exceptional
cases, for as short a time as possible, and only as a last resort.” 142
In August 2014 the UN Human Rights Committee asked the French government to comment
on allegations that “prisoners undergoing involuntary psychiatric care are subject to
isolation or physical restraints throughout their stay in most health facilities” as part of
their reporting on their compliance with respect for the right to life and the prohibition of
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 143 However, the
French government did not address this in its response to the Committee’s list of issues. 144
The director of the men’s prison in Rennes told Human Rights Watch that “if there is no
space in the UHSA, they’re hospitalized [in a psychiatric hospital]. It happens. There are
cases when we’re not in favor of it. There are prisoners who use it to try to escape. In the
meantime, they stay in an Emergency Protection Cell [in prison].” 145 Those are cells inside
the prison aimed at suicide prevention, with smooth surfaces and nothing on which
prisoners can attach a rope or cloth to hang themselves. They can also be required to wear
paper pajamas in those cells.
Prisoners who had been admitted in psychiatric hospitals without their consent as well as
medical staff and the former inspector of prisons described harsh conditions for prisoners
in psychiatric hospitals. As a matter of policy, they are placed in isolation because of their
status as prisoners, not because their mental health condition justifies it.
Prisoners interviewed by Human Rights Watch shared painful memories of past stays in
psychiatric hospitals as prisoners. “I was injected. I found myself in an isolated cell,
142 Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, July
2008, A/63/175, paragraphs 77, 79 and 83, http://www.refworld.org/docid/48db99e82.html (accessed October 24, 2015).
143 Human Rights Committee, list of issues in relation to the fifth periodic report of France, August 18, 2014,
CCPR/C/FRA/Q/5, paragraph 10,
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=899& (accessed October 24,
2015).
144 Human Rights Committee, List of issues in relation to the fifth periodic report of France, Addendum, Replies of France to
the list of issues, April 30, 2015, CCPR/C/FRA/Q/5/Add.1,
http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsmtlAMSUVPZr5NwSxcDwgKL8h
KgImrQk0C8CXsUqPRlNGhcElBp6KZmUJjUaDYoQqQrHNAM4%2baE5NOpvJ8UftpasV675CjnGc2iUuabdH9HRagQHG3t2ys7Hnu
kjnN%2bpZA%3d%3d (accessed October 24, 2015).
145 Human Rights Watch interview with Jacques Gombert, director of the prison of Rennes-Vezin, April 15, 2015.
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