A wave of suicides in French penitentiaries brought the Justice Minister to Austria in search of a model that works
France has the highest prison suicide rate in Europe, according to the World Health Organization, a staggering statistic that has shaken Jean Marie Bockel who took over as French Commissioner of Justice in June, 2009.
Overburdened and sagging under its own weight, Bockel wants to reform the system and arrived in Vienna Jan. 12 to visit two of Austria’s respected prisons “without bars.” A similar system, Bockel hopes could alleviate the pressures on the French system and perhaps someday abolish the use of high-level restraints in some facilities altogether.
