Body searches in French prisons: dignity and security on a roller coaster
In France, the regulation of body searches in prison is directly related to internal and European courts decisions condemning the breach of inmates’ right to dignity by the use of indiscriminate body searches. Article 57 of the French Prison Act (Loi pénitentiaire, 24th November 2009) was until the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Body Searches and Imprisonment
Year: 2023, Pages: 153-175 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Summary: | In France, the regulation of body searches in prison is directly related to internal and European courts decisions condemning the breach of inmates’ right to dignity by the use of indiscriminate body searches. Article 57 of the French Prison Act (Loi pénitentiaire, 24th November 2009) was until the 1st of May 2022 the main regulation in this area. The content of this Article is now included in the Articles L225-1 to L225-3 of the new Prison Code (Code pénitentiaire). Article 57 of the Prison Act was first adopted to prevent any abuse resorting to body searches in prisons, as it was strongly stated in the parliamentary debates back then. Nonetheless, the first version of the law, which was intended to oblige the prison administration to justify the use of body searches by only allowing those that were motivated by both precise circumstances and the personality of the searched inmate, was modified twice. Both modifications aimed at giving back to the prison administration more flexibility on the use of body searches. Interestingly, since the adoption of the French Prison Act, prison workers’ unions intensively lobbied to reintroduce those systematic and indiscriminate searches. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 173-175 |
| ISBN: | 9783031204517 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/978-3-031-20451-7_8 |