Question 9436 — overseas

Summary

Mr. Jean-Victor Castor alerts the Minister of State, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, about the creation of a high security unit in the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni prison. On May 18, 2025, the Minister announced the establishment in Guyana of a so-called high security prison. This decision taken without consultation was the subject of a total refusal from elected officials and the people of Guyana. As a reminder, the construction of a penitentiary establishment and a high court in Saint-Laurent was claimed by the Guyanese people in 2017 and recorded by the Guyana Accords. The population's demand in 2017 was clear: a territorial rebalancing in terms of justice and detention in order to improve access to justice and allow family reunification for prisoners from the West. It was also a matter of unclogging the Rémire-Montjoly penitentiary center (at this time day 1,060 prisoners for 600 places). At no time did the Guyanese request a high security unit. In a letter dated May 22, 2025, the chancellery indicates that these will be “devices specific to the Guyanese situation, including in particular a neighborhood for the fight against organized crime with 60 places intended to completely isolate drug traffickers from the networks which are rampant in Guyana and the Antilles” and that “this project is part of a fully committed strategy to combat organized crime, extending the dynamic initiated with the announcement of the high security establishments of Vendin-le-Vieil and Condé-sur-Sarthe in France. However, as things currently stand, there are no (or very few) prisoners of this type in the prisons of the Antilles-Guyana zone. Therefore, faced with the lack of places in French prisons, the detainees in this high security unit will be those who cannot (or who do not want to) be incarcerated in Vendin-le-Vieil or Condé-sur-Sarthe. From the outset, this initiative, far from “breaking with a certain prison naivety” to fight effectively against organized crime (see letter above), will only strengthen it. And for good reason, incarcerating radicalized detainees and drug traffickers in the same place will create or will inevitably strengthen links and ramifications between two types of hyper-criminality, further placing them in geographical proximity to narco-cartels which have significant logistical and financial resources much greater than those of France in Guyana. Ultimately, this high security district will de facto transform Guyana into a hub for organized crime between South America and Europe. This project is not an answer but a boon for organized crime and it provides no solution to the territory's legal difficulties. Indeed, what about the judicial city in Cayenne (also in the Guyana agreements)? What human resources can be provided to respond to the current emergency at the Rémire-Montjoly penitentiary center, which in less than three months has deplored the suicide of two inmates. Where is the installation of the scanner at Félix Eboué airport for put an end to the discriminatory policy of 100% control? What about the installation of the scanner for containers at the Grand maritime port of Dégrad des Cannes promised during the Security Conference on September 30, 2022 in Guyana? For Guyana, the urgent priorities are elsewhere and have not been satisfied for decades: total land restitution, recognition of indigenous people, opening up, emancipation statutory, the security of people and property, the eradication of illegal gold mining, health, a hospital worthy of the name, education, access to drinking water, the security of communities, sustainable economic development, the promotion of youth and cultural diversity. What the Guyanese are asking for are the means to live with dignity, not the creation of ultra-secure prisons decided by Paris in a context of anticipated campaign for the 2027 presidential elections. From then on, he asked for the formalization of the withdrawal of this high security district project within the future Saint-Laurent penitentiary center.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.