International observatory of the prisons

The International observatory of the prisons (OIP) was born in 1990 with Lyon with for goal to promote, everywhere in the world, the respect of the imprisoned people taking into consideration international instrument relating to the Human rights. It obtained an advisory statute with UNO in 1995. The OIP was organized gradually as national regional delegations and sections.

French section of the OIP

Juridically created in January 1996, the French section is an association governed by the law of the 1 {{er}} July 1901, with nonlucrative goal and independent of the public authorities. Concretely, the OIP draws up and makes known the state of the detention conditions of the imprisoned people, alerts the opinion, the public authorities, the organizations and the organizations concerned on the whole of the failures observed; inform the people Détenu are their rights and supports their steps to put forward them; support the adoption of laws, payments and other measurements suitable to guarantee the defense of the person and the respect of the Droits of the prisoners; support the reduction in the number of held people, the limitation of the recourse to the Incarcération, the reduction of the scale of the sorrows, the development of alternatives to the criminal prosecutions and substitutes with the privative sanctions of freedom. The OIP acts out of any political consideration and whatever the reason for the imprisonment. It is pressed on the national and international texts relating to the human rights which provide that each one has right, in any place, with the recognition of its legal personality and that no one cannot be subjected to cruel sorrows or treatments, inhuman or degrading. Organization independent of the public authorities, the OIP does not request any mandate or subsidy of the Ministère of Justice, avoids taking share with the action of any government, supporting any political party or giving an opinion at the time of any election. The French section is currently chaired by Gabriel Mouesca.

Actions of the OIP

To facilitate the implementation of its objectives, the OIP organizes a vigilance citizen around each place of detention thanks to a network of local groups of observation.

A local group exerts of the establishment and a protection surveillance mission of the held people. Concretely, it proceeds each year to an in-depth survey concerning the penitentiary site using an important collection of 500 questions, called the observor. This questionnaire screens the daily life prisoners of the establishment as regards Santé, of Hygiène, Travail, Culture, Religion, family bonds , but also of Discrimination, ill treatments, sanctions… It leads to forge the " indentity card " Prison, to precisely know the nature and the extent of the dysfunctions which occur there. In addition, each time it raises a failure with the right or a dysfunction in the establishment observed, the local group makes it public, by means of an official statement addressed to the Médias, the penitentiary authorities, the judicial bodies and associations concerned… An official statement of the OIP informs of established facts and checked bearing reached with dignity, even with the physical integrity and morals of the held person. He points out the national or international texts ridiculed. Information justifying the drafting and the sending of an official statement can be a defect of care, an obstruction with the maintenance of the family ties, an obstacle with the Freedom of thought, an abusive disciplinary action, a refusal of release on parole, the continued detention of a person reached of serious mental health disorders or of a Terminal illness in final phase, the lack of precautions taken with regard to a suicidal prisoner…

Under the responsibility of the board of directors of the French section of the OIP, a national secretariat, based in Paris, ensures the coordination and the development of the local groups of observation as well as the training of the militants of the Observatory. Moreover, the team of permanent which composes this secretariat manages the national publications, the answers to the interpellations or mails of the prisoners and their families, the relationships to the public authorities, the media, the professional organizations and associations, the search for financings, the management of adhesions, the subscriptions and the orders. The national secretariat also organizes national campaigns of information or claim.

The Observatory tries to mobilize the general attention on the fate reserved for the whole of the individuals of freedom and day before to the respect of their basic rights and their Individual freedoms.

Publications of the OIP

The International observatory of the prisons publishes in particular a bimonthly review, Dedans outside , intended for all those which wish to be informed on the prison world, a Guide of the prisoner , a Guide of outgoing of prison , as well as a Rapport drawing up at the same time the assessment of the policies penal and penitentiary implementations by the public authorities and an inventory of fixtures of the living and working conditions behind the walls of the French Prisons.

See too

Internal bonds

Prison
Group of information on the prisons
To supervise and punish
Federation of associations reflection action prison and justice

External bond

Internet site of the OIP

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