General provisions

I.-Without prejudice to its right to apply to the administrative court pursuant to articles L. 521-1, L. 521-2 or L. 521-3 of the Code of Administrative Justice, any person detained in a prison in application of this Code who considers that the conditions of detention are contrary to human dignity may apply to the liberty and custody judge, if they are in pre-trial detention, or to the sentence enforcement judge, if they are convicted and incarcerated in execution of a custodial sentence, to put an end to these undignified conditions of detention.

If the allegations contained in the application are detailed, personal and current, so that they constitute prima facie evidence that the conditions of detention of the person do not respect the dignity of the person, the judge shall declare the application admissible and, where appropriate, inform the magistrate in charge of the case by any means of the filing of the application. This decision must be made within ten days of receipt of the application.

However, on pain of inadmissibility, no new application may be lodged until a decision has been taken, within the time limits laid down in this article, on a previous application or, if the latter has been deemed unfounded, until a new factor has come to light that alters the conditions of detention.

If the judge considers the application to be admissible, he shall carry out the necessary checks or have them carried out and shall receive the prison administration's observations within a period of between three working days and seven days from the decision provided for in the second paragraph of this I.

If the judge considers the application to be well-founded, he shall inform the prison administration, within ten days of the decision provided for in the same second paragraph, of the conditions of detention that he considers to be contrary to human dignity and he shall set a time limit of between ten days and one month to allow these conditions of detention to be ended by any means. Before the end of this period, the prison administration shall inform the judge of the measures taken. The judge may not order the prison administration to take specific measures and the prison administration alone is competent to assess the means to be implemented. To this end, it may transfer the person to another prison, subject, in the case of an accused person, to the agreement of the judge hearing the case.

II.-If, at the end of the period set in application of the last paragraph of I, the judge finds, in the light of the information sent by the prison administration concerning the measures taken and any verification that he or she deems useful, that the undignified conditions of detention have not been put an end to, he or she shall, within a period of ten days, issue one of the following decisions :

1° Either order the transfer of the person to another prison;

2° Or, if the person is in pre-trial detention, order their immediate release, where applicable under judicial supervision or under house arrest with electronic surveillance;

3° Or, if the person has been finally sentenced and is eligible for such a measure, order one of the measures provided for in III of article 707.

The judge may, however, refuse to make one of the decisions provided for in 1° to 3° of this II on the grounds that the person has opposed a transfer proposed to him by the prison administration pursuant to the last paragraph of I, unless the person is a convicted offender and the transfer would have caused, in view of his family's place of residence, excessive interference with his right to respect for his private and family life.

III.-The decisions provided for in this article shall state the reasons on which they are based. The judge's decisions provided for in the last paragraph of I and in II shall be taken in the light of the application and the observations of the detainee or, where applicable, his lawyer, the written observations of the prison administration and the written opinion of the public prosecutor and, where applicable, if the judge deems it necessary, the opinion of the investigating judge. The applicant may ask to be heard by the judge, assisted if necessary by his or her lawyer. In this case, the judge must also hear the public prosecutor and the representative of the prison administration if they so request. These hearings may be conducted using audiovisual telecommunications pursuant to article 706-71.

The decisions provided for in the second and last paragraphs of I and II of this article may be appealed to the President of the Investigating Chamber or to the President of the Penal Enforcement Chamber of the Court of Appeal. This appeal must be lodged within ten days of notification of the decision; the case must be examined within one month. If lodged within twenty-four hours, the public prosecutor's appeal has suspensive effect; the case must then be heard within fifteen days, failing which the appeal is null and void.

If the time limits laid down in this article are not respected, the detainee may refer the matter directly to the president of the investigating chamber or the president of the enforcement chamber.

IV.-The procedures for applying this article are specified by decree in the Conseil d'Etat.

This decree will specify in particular:

1° The procedures for referral to the liberty and custody judge or the sentence enforcement judge;

2° The nature of the checks that the judge may order pursuant to the penultimate paragraph of I, without prejudice to his or her ability to order an expert report or to visit the place of detention;

3° To what extent, as from the decision provided for in the last paragraph of the same I, the administrative judge, if he has been seized by the convicted person, is no longer competent to order his transfer to another prison establishment.