International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015

International Journal on Criminology - Fall 2015, Volume 3, Number 2 Organized Crime Behind Bars François Haut A INTRODUCTION While the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January 2015 unsurprisingly erased the memory of the previous evening, when television viewers 1 had seen how the inmates of Baumettes prison were posting their exploits on Facebook 2 flourishing drugs and wads of cash, they also seem to have made people forget just as quickly that these attacks only occurred because of serious societal shortcomings—most notably that the perpetrators had been radicalized, specifically, in prison. Prison crime may be considered as one of the protagonists in what has been termed the “Contemporary Criminal Menace.” In France it is equally as serious as other forms of organized criminal activity, with one difference—the subject is simply not discussed. It is taboo. Yet another “French exception” that seems to have rendered the current Minister of Justice (among others) willfully ignorant, leading her to declare before the Law Commission of the National Assembly 3 that it was “not desirable to share criminal information from prisons with the intelligence community.” She is undoubtedly right. How, after all, could it possibly be useful to know precisely what is happening in our prisons or to cross-check this information? It's a well-known fact that nothing really happens inside, well, no real wrongdoing... It's also undoubtedly why Rédoine Faïd, a robber arrested in June 2011 and who claimed to have become a reformed character, escaped from Lille-Sequedin prison on April 13, 2013, less than two years later, using “only” handguns and explosives and taking “only” four guards as hostages. The images of his escape were made public, much to the dismay of prison officers “shocked” by their broadcast on TV channels M6 and TF1. The Justice Minister, Christiane Taubira “questioned” and expressed “concern” over video footage “highlighting criminal acts likely to undermine the dignity of prison staff,” forgetting, perhaps, that a number of serious questions remain unanswered. Is France soon to witness criminal acts comparable to those we have watched unfold in the United States in recent times? A Head of the Department for Research into Contemporary Criminal Threats, Université Panthéon- Assas, Paris 1 BFM TV, January 6, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugkBXt6iCpE 2 Facebook account MDR o Baumettes (“Baumettes lol”). 3 March 31, 2015 21 ��

International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 26