The immediate liberation of minors, sick prisoners, those who have become mentally troubled, and illegal immigrants;

The automatic remission of sentences as well as systematic release on parole, and the pardoning and re-examination of sentences;

The improvement of conditions of prisoners by the re-opening of cell doors in the high-security prisons, the abolition of solitary confinement/ “the hole”, the ERIS and body searches;

Proper conditions of visiting hours and to stay in proximity to one’s family members and close ones, in order to retain close ties with them;

To abandon the project of the construction of new prisons, particularly high-security penitentiaries.

First of all, and certainly to the regret of some, what took place the 16th of April 2003 at the high-security prison of Clairvaux was not an uprising, not even the dawning of the “big night”… Nor was it premeditation, nor was there any dialogue, nor organization. A motive? Well…. It’s simple, it’s just the satisfaction to see a prison that’s…. And also, there was no coincidence: the attitude of Danet (the prison’s ward) and the entire clique of the administration had been there for too long, we basically needed an explicit way to give them back what they deserve.

Danet, you played, you lost!  Are you going to replay?

The administration had, for example, recently changed the regulations regarding the visiting hours to their close ones, without informing the prisoners in any other way but a pitiful poster to which no one had paid attention. What needed to happen happened: the refusal of visiting hours for families who travel hundreds of kilometres to visit their loved ones in prison and for whom the ten unfortunate minutes of being late become fatal for them. Those who refuse families their visiting hours really do exist and are cowards. Following some inmates’ protests, as soon as the next day, the administration gave them a piece of paper informing them of the change in regulation… But the prisoner and his/her family had already been made the fool of, and admitted fault will not be forgiven.

During this time, and under the fallacious pretence of the uprising of Building A of February 2003, the visiting hours no longer had heating facilities nor were they cleaned… forcing us to meet with our close ones in conditions very… well, no need to give details here!

And imprisonment? The same arrogance of the administration continued! For example, it had already been three years that the prisoners complained of the fact that there was only one telephone per 90 inmates, and two washing machines (constantly out of order) for 150 inmates, and that the price for the exterior cafeteria were outrageous… At every motive of discontent, the administration always responded by turning the other way… In short, at the silence and cowardness of these fools one must respond!

There are thus thousands of reasons to be sick of being treated like an idiot, so when the 16th of April 2003 came, I showed them the bill: burning down workshops… It seems that the damages amount to over four million euros… I was, with twelve other innocent inmates immediately transferred.  Direct to the hole of jails in the Parisian region (Fleury, Osny, Fresnes, Bois d’Arcy) or in the east (Varennes le Grand, Besançon). Others were placed in (solitary confinement punishment) at Clairvaux, then in solitary confinement, before being transferred to Fresnes.  All these great people were thus assigned to a new prison at the beginning of September…

Nothing was offered, everything was taken…

And everything rests to be taken!

Following this beautiful day, or rather this fire, obviously, no more work for the prisoners and also, even a prisoner dared to say in l’Envolée: “the ambiance was no longer there… They reframed the prison like a high-security quarter…it’s not convincing, it’s really whatever..”  What a beautiful story!

So, that it remains clear, we did not come to the prison for its ambiance, and when someone complains that they had lost their jobs, well there, let’s just say that we are not here to work!  No joke!

We don’t give a #!@# about working!  We’re in jail, and some want to follow the rules of the penitentiary and of justice: behave, pay one’s debt to society and everything will be better?  Yeah right!  No compromise is possible, and even those who collaborate (we’ve seen the depositions, hah hah!) are never well paid by the justice system in return… Whoever can understand…  Instead of thinking about your job, it would be better to be fighting (or support those who are in struggle!) so that justice respects its own laws, notably: half-sentences, half pardons… for everyone.

In all the struggles in prison, whether that be for “free” (of what, actually?) visiting hours, the television, access to the telephone, …for every improvement of the living conditions of inmates and for the accommodations that the inmates’ close ones have benefited from, for all that, there had been deaths, as well as additional prison sentences distributed to the few who dared fight.

What’s been acquired in the uprisings, collective movements…from ’74 to the early 80s is today in the process of disappearing and nobody will fight in our place, and certainly not those who self-proclaim as the representatives of inmates and of their close ones… Nothing was offered, everything was taken… And everything rests to be taken!

To return to the judiciary consequences of 16 April 2003, one has to first say that there were no preliminary investigation: meaning that the police officers came to interrogate us between mid-June and the beginning of July, but that nobody saw the examining magistrate.  It is in receiving, at the extreme limit of ten legal days, the convocation for the hearing of 15 December that we each discovered our counts of indictment.  Moreover, it’s better to say that on this issue they didn’t  really bother to take a look at things … it was pretty much the same for everybody.

To tell you how many of these indictments are phoney concerning what the others were charged with: one of them had continued working at the workshop of Clairvaux, following which he had even been nominated to other positions… until they made him pay for his participation in a movement of protestations last November by charging him with this.  They’ve got a nerve!  Awful!

So, the 15th of last December, we all came by the hearing and we succeeded in pushing back the trial until March 9th.  It doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a grand masquerade…So, the 9th of March, we will do it over again!  I will tell Danet and his acolytes, to the procurator, to the judge, to those who would really like to listen… everything I’m saying now, and if I don’t hide the reasons for which I set everything on fire, at least the Penitentiary will also have to respond to its acts.

Even if the administration at Clairvaux considers days spent in the hole, months added back to laxed sentences, transfers that further distance inmates from their families… that all this are mere “blemishes”… I would not accept these “blemishes”; I also wouldn’t accept it that those who are innocent have years added to their sentences.

So, better that I ask to be committed for trial according to the charges, instead of there being a dozen on trial, I would be by myself… this would only be better, I’d like to have the place to myself!!

I assume what I did, better that I take the responsibility for it.  That will perturb the talkers, those who always want to be responsible, but never guilty.  So yes, responsible, guilty and proud of my acts.

Hoping that the message has been clear: the demands of transfer of inmates need to be taken care of immediately and effectively.  It’s out of the question that we rest rotting in jail when it’s been months that we want to leave… And that the penitentiary administration respects our families…

I’m going to take advantage of this moment to send a warm hello to those who were present at the hearing on the 15th of last December and/or to those who will come next March 9th to show solidarity with the indicted innocent and with myself, and in general with the struggle of prisoners and their families.

High-security prison of Moulins, February 2004

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