SLEEPING, EATING AND SHOWERING WITH RATS

French prison inmate sharing his cell with dozens of rats sues jail as his lawyer complains he has to 'jump over them' when he visits

By Hannah al-Othman

Daily Mail
October 22, 2016

A French prisoner is suing the jail where he is being held after he was forced to sleep, eat, and shower surrounded by rats.

The unnamed inmate managed to film a video of his conditions inside the rat-infested prison, which shows dozens of the vermin gnawing at rubbish on the floor.

The footage was reportedly shot at Sequedin prison in Nord department in northern France, close to the city of Lille.

The situation has even prompted complaints from the prisoner's lawyer, who has said he has to jump over rats when he goes to visit clients in the jail.

Olivier Cardon slammed the 'deplorable conditions' his client was living in, as he also raised concerns about his own working conditions.

'My client eats with rats in his cell,' Mr Cardon said.

'He takes his shower with rats. The water in his shower stinks because there are rats in the pipes. Rats also scurry around the courtyard where my client walks.'

France's prisons have come under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks, with campaigners filing a complaint against the French government over living conditions on the inside.

The French-based International Prisons Observatory (OIP) backed its complaint with statements from inmates at Fresnes prison, who described overcrowding and filthy conditions in the jail near Paris.

'We are infested with bedbugs, bitten every night on the face, on the neck, the shoulders, the back, the legs and the arms,' one inmate said, while another described the stench of dead rats, and a third said he had to share his cell with up to 300 cockroaches.

The OIP has previously warned about overcrowding in French prisons, where the number of inmates soared this summer to 68,819 people for 58,507 places.

At the end of May, the authorities confirmed to the OIP two cases of leptospirosis in prisoners, an infection mainly transmitted by rats.

A justice ministry spokesman told AFP news agency that measures had been taken to tackle the rat infestation, but that the process would take time.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Shit, I don’t know why they are complaining. When I attended Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University), the fucking dorm was full of rats. Several times I woke up in the middle of the night with a rat crawling over me.