Question 13572 — fundamental rights

Summary

Ms. Alexandra Martin (Alpes-Maritimes) draws the attention of the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, to the practices of isolation and restraint applied to minors hospitalized in psychiatry. In an urgent notice published in the Official Journal on December 4, 2025, the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL) alerted to the particularly worrying situation of minors hospitalized in psychiatry, in particular when they are placed under the so-called “free” care regime. The CGLPL describes situations in which children hospitalized at the request of holders of parental authority or child welfare are placed in solitary confinement or subjected to restraint measures, even though the legislation reserves these measures for complete hospitalizations without consent. Recent revelations have illustrated the extent of these deviations. Thus, at the Fondation Vallée de Gentilly, a child psychiatry establishment attached to the EPS Paul Guiraud, children hospitalized in free care were allegedly locked in isolation spaces or in “secure rest spaces” comparable to isolation rooms, without a clear legal basis or effective legal recourse. Furthermore, the findings of the CGLPL relating to the psychiatry department of the Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière in Paris report isolation and restraint measures applied to minors and patients in independent care outside the strict framework provided for by the public health code and without systematic judicial control. These situations raise even more questions as more than 50,000 minors are hospitalized in psychiatry in France each year, often under the voluntary care regime. However, according to the concordant observations of CGLPL and several associative analyses, many of these minors would be exposed to measures depriving of liberty (isolation, restraint, confinement, restrictions on exit or visits) without benefiting from the procedural guarantees provided for adults hospitalized without consent, in particular the control of the judge of freedoms and detention. The CGLPL nevertheless recalls that “minors cannot benefit from fewer rights than adult patients” and underlines the need for any custodial measure concerning a minor to be strictly supervised, traced and brought to the attention of the judge. In view of these elements and the obligations arising in particular from the International Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she asks what measures the Government intends taken to guarantee that minors hospitalized in psychiatry, including in so-called "free" care, cannot be subject to isolation or restraint measures outside of a strict legal framework and effective judicial control and whether it plans to change the legislation in order to ensure reinforced supervision, complete traceability and effective judicial control of any custodial measure concerning minors hospitalized in psychiatry.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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1. 17 March 2026

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• Alexandra Martin (Alpes-Maritimes) · auteur

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