France’s justice ministry is under pressure to explain why it signed off on games inspired by reality TV at the country’s second largest prison.
The political row erupted after a 25-minute video of prisoners at Fresnes jail taking part in go-karting and other challenges in the prison courtyard appeared on YouTube. The prison games were called Kohlantess – a play on Les aventuriers de Koh-Lanta, a French reality TV show based on the Survivor format.
The justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, described the film as “shocking” and ordered an internal inquiry even though his ministry’s communications department was reported to have approved the project and viewed the film before it was broadcast to ensure there were no security concerns.
“The fight against reoffending involves rehabilitating [prisoners] but certainly doesn’t involve go-karting,” Dupond-Moretti tweeted.
Le Figaro reported that approval for the event and the release of the film had been made at the “highest level” of the ministry, but officials told the paper: “What we were presented with didn’t mention go-karting; it talked of sporting challenges, skipping ropes,” an unnamed staff member told the paper.
The event is believed to have also been approved by the French prison authority.
Jimmy Delliste, the prison governor at Fresnes, south of Paris, defended the event saying it was a “fraternal occasion” and thanked the organisers. The games raised €1,700 for charity, he said.
Éric Ciotti, of the centre-right opposition party Les Républicains, was among the most vocal in his outrage. “Our prisons are not holiday camps where prisoners and guards make bonds of friendship,” he said.
“There is a form of hypocrisy from the minister … either he was informed or he was not. He can’t demand an inquiry if his office was informed. The minister has to explain. These images have shocked many French people and many victims,” Ciotti told BFMTV. “Behind every prisoner there is a victim and it’s those victims I am thinking of.”
Fresnes was built at the end of the 19th century for about 1,700 prisoners. It is now believed hold more than 2,000 men and 100 women.
During Germany’s occupation of France during the second world war, the men’s wing was taken over by the Nazis who tortured and executed members of the French resistance and British intelligence operatives. The American writer James Baldwin was held at Fresnes after being wrongly arrested for theft in 1949.
A French prisons official said none of those taking part in the games had been convicted of murder or rape, and that the event had not cost taxpayers “a penny”.
Enzo Angelo Santo, an independent producer who worked on the video, told BFMTV: “Obviously, as far as we were concerned, everything was approved. We would never have gone against [the] ministry of justice.”
The event was organised by a local man, Djibril Dramé, who is said to have organised several similar games in Fresnes for several years and set up a sports competition between police and youngsters in June. French media reported it had been sponsored by a halal fast food chain, Big M, and an online sports app, Omada.
