the Olympic Games, an opportunity to improve access to sport in prison

Within the walls of the Paris-La Santé remand center, you have to pass through the secure doors of the integration and recidivism prevention center to attend a sports session like no other. In the renovated gymnasium of the prison built in 1867, around twenty inmates strive to respect Fatia Benmessahel’s instructions. For one morning, the 24-year-old boxer – medalist on the international scene – put her preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on hold. “Tac, here we go!” » Dressed in the French team tracksuit, she doesn’t let the pace drop. “In life, there’s nothing without nothing, guys. We must give ourselves the means to get there,” motivates those who discover the prison world.

The ring has just been set up: the fights can begin. The group rushes to the gloves laid out on the gym floor. The smartest managed to recover those, in tricolor colors, loaned by the champion. It’s Samir, who looks like an veteran at 41 years old. The jokes are flying: “Who’s going to sleep in the bottom bunk?” “, says a spectator to two fellow inmates who are confronting each other. In the ring, it’s also up to the one who best honors their floor of detention. But the important thing is elsewhere: “Above all, it’s an opportunity to let off steam, confides Samir. Sport is an outlet in prison. »

“Prison overcrowding makes the very idea of ​​going to the gym almost unthinkable”

Today’s activity is part of a prison administration action plan. Since November 2023 and until the start of the Games, an Olympic athlete comes every month to La Santé to showcase their discipline. Fatia Benmessahel is the sixth to take part in the exercise. “This program is based on Olympic and Paralympic values, explains Atena Lasbleiz, director of partnerships at the Paris Prison Integration and Probation Service. The goal is also to show them that we can get there despite failures, through twelve athletes’ journeys to draw inspiration from. » The trajectory of Fatia Benmessahel is enough to command respect: “I grew up in a family that didn’t want girls to do boxing and I studied in one of the worst colleges in France in 93. I forced myself and I succeeded. »

This morning covers another objective of the prison administration: “We want to create a legacy of the Olympics in prison”, says Atena Lasbleiz. But if the initiative allows a handful of inmates from different floors of the remand center to create links, what will remain of this program once the excitement of the Games has passed?

In French prisons, access to sports has become complicated. “The current state of prison overcrowding makes the very idea of ​​going to the gym almost unthinkable”, laments Juliette Chapelle, president of the Association for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights (A3D). With 77,450 prisoners, as of April 1, 2024 – a record –, for 61,570 places, ” there overcrowding affects access to activities, which is already very, very limited,” assures Johann Bihr, member of the International Prison Observatory (OIP). An OIP report, dating from 2022, completes the inventory: “Sport is the most popular activity among prisoners. The majority of them have access to sports facilities between one and three hours per week. An insufficient offer in view of the waiting lists observed. »

Sport, “a breath of fresh air” for prisoners

At Paris-La Santé prison, of the 1,000 people detained, 700 are registered for sports activities offered at the gymnasium. “Among all those registered, we can only receive 300 per week, explains Younès, sports instructor – specialized supervisor – assigned to the gymnasium. Each floor of the remand center has its own slot, we try to do rotations over two weeks. » The instructor is on the front line to see the benefits of sports practice: “It’s a breath of fresh air for them, it allows them to forget the worries of detention. »

Unable to offer them a weekly session, Younès works in his own way on the reintegration of prisoners: “For any activity, we put in place regulations that they must learn to respect. It’s the same with the law when they get out of prison. » Thus, detention time must now be useful and not just punitive. A sports coordinator from the Interregional Directorate of Prison Services in Paris confirms this change of intention: “Before, sport was occupational. Now we’re trying to make sense of it. »

This progress is not sufficient, according to the A3D: “This remains an initiative taken locally. There are no unified practices between establishments. It will depend on budgets and the goodwill of prison directors,” deplores Juliette Chapelle. At La Santé, Younès believes “to be well off”, with envelopes that allow equipment such as basketball hoops or weight machines to be regularly renewed. In thirteen years spent in the penitentiary, the supervisor has seen progress in the resources allocated to sporting activity. But the situation differs nationally. Accustomed to prison visits, Juliette Chapelle insists: “We have received feedback from inmates who tell us that the state of the equipment is deplorable. »

Rising budgets

Yet Justice Department budgets have increased significantly in recent years. Between 2017 and 2027, the budget envelope benefited from an increase of 60%, according to the chancellery. But the prison administration saw its budget almost unchanged and the rare increases were used to renovate and increase the prison stock.

If the Olympic context makes it possible to introduce an additional dose of sport into the daily lives of prisoners, Younès wonders about the “Olympic effect”: “Will this last?” I’m afraid it will fade over time.” he fears. It also remains to shake up practices and mentalities so that sport is no longer relegated to prison: “Too often, prisoners must choose between sporting activity and obligations such as the visiting room, regrets the president of the A3D. It’s a choice they shouldn’t have to make. »

While the boxing class with Fatia Benmessahel ended earlier than expected, Younès and his colleagues decide to give the inmates a break before they return to their cells. A football game is improvised. One of the prisoners does not have the chance to participate, a prison guard comes to pick him up to accompany him to the visiting room. Disappointed, he blurted out just before pushing open the gymnasium door: “You’re ruining my only pleasure of the week. »

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Sport in prison, a practice that is growing

Since 2004, the prison administration and around twenty sports federations (football, pétanque, athletics, etc.) have joined forces to allow access to regular sports practice in prison.

Sports in prison are supervised by sports instructors belonging to the prison administration. Today, the Ministry of Justice has around 400. These are supervisors who have undergone specific training to obtain this authorization. The prison administration’s sports policy is managed by a national “sport” referent, whose orientations are relayed by regional referents.

One year before the Paris 2024 Games, the Grand Est Regional Olympic and Sports Committee organized, in June 2023, the “Prison Games”, an Olympiad for prisoners. 120 prisoners from several Alsatian prisons (Lutterbach, Elsau, Ensisheim, Oermingen) were brought together at the Mulhouse penitentiary center to participate in this sporting event.