Conseil d’État, urgent applications judge · 3 September 2026 · 518418
People held in the organised-crime unit at Alençon–Condé-sur-Sarthe and a prisoners’ rights organisation sought urgent protection. Their complaints included intimidation, deliberate waking at night and humiliating strip searches. The Caen administrative court issued an injunction. The justice minister appealed it.
What the injunction required
The first judge required the minister to take effective measures to prevent the specified misconduct, including unlawful punishments. The order left the prison administration a choice about implementation. It applied to the treatment of people in custody rather than altering any criminal sentence.
What survived on appeal
The Conseil d’État rejected the minister’s appeal. The protective injunction therefore stood. It also refused the organisation’s separate request for wider restrictions on masked staff. The judge did not need to resolve every disputed allegation to uphold an order requiring the administration to prevent conduct its own rules forbade.
What a preventive order can achieve
The prisoners gained an enforceable obligation directed at those responsible for the unit. Compensation and proof of compliance would be separate questions. The ruling records the measures ordered, rather than establishing that all the alleged practices subsequently stopped.
