Justice: The new Minister assured his “support” for plans for Saint-Martin ​

The nomination of Jean-Jacques Urvoas on Wednesday could be a good sign for Saint-Martin. In the field of justice, advances are very slow, while needs are immense. Certainly, a separate chamber of the Basse-Terre Regional Court was created by decree on December 30, 2015. The Director of Judicial Services was, moreover, in Saint-Martin last week to organize this implementation. So while this project seems to be on track, there is yet another that remains to be set in motion: the construction of a prison. And it is for this project that Jean-Jacques Urvoas’s support could be a determining factor.

In 2014, the Minister of Justice came to Saint-Martin in his capacity as deputy and president of the Law Commission to the Assemblée nationale within the framework of the parliamentary fact-finding mission that he himself had launched upon the request of Daniel Gibbs. Alongside Gibbs and René Dosière, the two co-rapporteurs, Jean-Jacques Urvoas heard the representatives of the State in charge of public order, and declared that “the situation is even more inconvenient so long as Saint-Martin does not have a prison.”* The two co-rapporteurs also referred to a report on overseas penitentiary issues submitted to the Garde des Sceaux; a report which thus found its way to his desk. Ever since, the idea has made its way, and the Minister does not seem to oppose the construction of a modular-designed prison at a reasonable cost. But no decision has been made yet.

The deputy Daniel Gibbs met with Jean-Jacques Urvoas the day after his nomination, and the Minister assured him of his “support” for the projects concerning Saint-Martin. It should be noted that Jean-Jacques Urvoas had authorized the advancement of certain files in 2014, including a presentation of the planned police cooperation agreement between Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten to the Council of Ministers three days after his return to Paris, a project that had been dragging on for the past four years.

If the new Minister of Justice respects tradition, he should come in person in February 2017 to inaugurate the new separate chamber in Saint-Martin. And why not imagine that he could announce the construction of a modular prison in Saint-Martin, alongside Manuel Valls, who he is very close to, who had canceled his move at the last minute in October 2013. At the time Minister of the Interior, he had confided that he “would return, since [he was] a man of commitment”. At that point, we will be two months from the presidential election.

Estelle GASNET

* Moreover, he had approved this parliamentary mission report, in which proposal number 17 consists of the “creation of a prison with a branch of the prison integration and probation department of Guadeloupe.”