French justice minister Gérald Darmanin on Friday confirmed that part of La Valentine juvenile detention centre in Marseille will be shut after prison watchdogs reported poor conditions for dozens of young inmates.
The decision follows a report from the Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) submitted on 31 July. Darmanin said he had asked the General Inspectorate of Justice to investigate the site.
"One to two units of the prison will be closed in September for the gradual refurbishment of the cells," said Darmanin.
"This is a very rare recommendation, but I can see no other option than to close in order to reopen in better conditions," Dominique Simonnot, an inspector from the CGLPL, told the French news agency AFP.
A five-person CGLPL team entered La Valentine without warning between 7 and 11 July. The centre holds inmates aged 13 to 18. Inspectors said they found serious breaches of the teenagers’ rights.
The walls of the cells were covered in graffiti that appeared to be written with excrement or blood. Bathrooms had no doors, mattresses were damaged and bedding was sometimes only a piece of foam with no cover or sheet.
'Youths locked up for 23 hours'
Inspectors said some youths were confined to their cells for 23 hours a day because of a lack of guards or teachers.
Phone calls were charged at what they called prohibitive rates. Curtains were banned on cell windows, even during heatwaves in Marseille where summer temperatures often pass 30C. Only the poorest inmates could apply for a free fan.
The CGLPL team also reported complaints about food.
"Due to the serious nature of the conditions of incarceration, urgent measures must be taken to remedy," said Simonnot.
"On the one hand, there is the indignity of the material conditions under which juveniles are being held and, on the other hand, the catastrophic consequences of the absence of prison and educational staff."
'Work carried out'
Darmanin said some repairs had already been made between 2024 and 2025 after inmates damaged the buildings.
Prison authorities said the health unit had not raised concerns about diet. But inspectors criticised a procedure where a minor could be locked in a barred room without water, toilets or seating, and no constant supervision, for 30 minutes to five hours.
"It was an exceptional response to the absence, within the units, of a waiting room enabling minors to be separated in the event of incidents," said Darmanin.
He added that the practice, described as "a local one", was halted on 20 August.
Opened in 2007, La Valentine is one of six centres across France meant to place education at the heart of detention.
But both the CGLPL and the International Prison Observatory warned that staff shortages were leaving teenagers confined for too long and without schooling.
"There are no more teachers, there are no more guards, there's nothing left," said Simonnot. "Those in authority must give the staff the means to meet the needs of detained minors."
(with newswires)
