During a visit to French Guiana, the country’s justice minister declared that France would construct a new high-security prison to accommodate radical Islamists and drug traffickers.
The jail would target organized crime “at all levels” of the drug supply chain, according to Gérald Darmanin. The €400 million (£337 million) plant will be constructed in a remote area in the northwest of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, deep into the Amazon jungle, with the potential to operate as early as 2028.
Following a string of violent attacks in recent months that targeted prisons and workers around France and were connected to criminal gangs, the plan was made public. The maximum capacity of the jail is 500, and the most severe offenders will be housed in a separate wing.
How will the new jail target drug traffickers?
The minister stated in an interview with JDD that an “extremely strict carceral regime” would oversee the new jail and be intended to “incapacitate the most dangerous drug traffickers.” According to Darmanin, the facility would be used as a “lasting means of removing the heads of the drug trafficking networks” in mainland France, as well as to imprison individuals “at the beginning of the drug trial.”
A part of France located on the northeastern coast of South America is known as French Guiana. Its citizens have access to the French social security system, additional benefits, and the right to vote in French elections. Drug lords “will no longer be able to have any contact with their criminal networks” due to its remoteness from the French mainland, Darmanin said.
What sparked France’s push for prison reform now
Mobile phone penetration into the prison network has long been a problem for French authorities. It’s known that tens of thousands pass through French prisons. The French government unveiled new laws earlier this year that are intended to combat criminal gang activities. The actions will establish a special division inside the prosecutor’s office to address organized crime. Additionally, it will grant investigators additional authority and grant informers a unique protected status.
Additionally, new high-security prisons, such as the one in French Guiana, will be built to house the most influential drug lords. These facilities will have more stringent regulations on visits and communication with the outside world.
In reaction to the government’s new laws, Darmanin has characterised the recent spate of attacks on prisons in France as “terrorist” occurrences. In addition to setting cars on fire outside of prisons, the perpetrators of these acts also fired shots at the La Farlede prison in Toulon.
In several cases, the attackers have positioned themselves as advocates for the rights of inmates. The AFP news agency claims that the planned new facility in French Guiana will be constructed at a “strategic crossroads” for drug smugglers, especially those from Brazil and Suriname.
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is the former port of entry to the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954. The penal colony was the setting of French writer Henri Charrière’s book Papillon, which was later made into a Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
