Of the ceramic knives, smartphones, Nintendo Switch or even raclette machines…the objects found in the cells of prisoners at the Rennes-Vezin penitentiary centre are increasingly bulky and, for some, increasingly dangerous. “Right now there are about twenty packages being sent out every night,” says Florian, one of the prison officers. “At most, we received 120 packages during the night.” The inmates created grappling hooks from forks and sheets to catch packages in the yard.
“You could get stabbed in the throat.”
The most dangerous for agents remains ceramic knives. “We have a lot of psychological cases here. Knowing that one of them can have a weapon, a ceramic knife that doesn’t ring under the security gates, yes it’s problematic,” laments the union representative. “At any time, if you turn your back on an inmate, you could get a punch in the throat.” The management equipped them with blade-proof vests. Insufficient according to him.
All the packages are sent over the enclosure wall, between the two remand centres of the penitentiary centre in the middle of the night. A choreography that prison officers see, without being able to do anything about it. “We see them coming from the watchtower. They don’t even run anymore because they know they have time to throw their package before the police get there. They’re not even worried anymore.” Parcel smugglers arrive near the prison through surrounding businesses. To counter the phenomenon, some of them have installed barbed wire.
“Some stores in Rennes have significantly fewer phones than we do in detention”
To try to limit illicit objects in prisons, Agents check cells regularlybut often don’t have time to do more than two a day. Some of them are starting to give up, says Florian. “Every day we managed to get two or three phones, but in the evening, there were double or even triple that came in by parcel. I think that some stores in Rennes had significantly fewer phones in custody than we did.”
Faced with this increase, prison officers are asking their management to increase their security and resources. “We want the management to install new protective nets to prevent packages from arriving in the prison. There are already some in several places, but one needs to be installed between the two remand centers,” explains the union representative. “We should also succeed in carrying out more searches in each sector of the prison, to empty the cells of illicit objects as much as possible.”
