Macron proposes plan to improve prison guards' working condition

PARIS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said a scheme to improve prison guards' situation would be presented next month in response to the agents' anger over working condition.

"The situation of prisons in France is disgraceful. It is unacceptable an occupancy rate of 139 percent, ...the working conditions of penitentiary staff," Macron said.

Facing a situation that prompted the blockade of many prisons, Macron "asked for a comprehensive penitentiary plan before the end of February 2018".

Macon's proposal was seen as a move to abate anger of hundreds of guards who blocked entrance to scores of prisons across the country on Monday to ask better and secure working conditions.

Last week, a radical Islamist detainee injured three guards with a pair of scissors and a razor blade at the Vendin-le-Vieil prison, north France.

"Yes, we want security," Jean-Francois Forget, general secretary of the Ufap-Unsa prison union told news channel BFMTV.

"Radicalized detainees are polluting the entire criminal administration. And those who are there for acts of terrorism or banditry take advantage of this opportunity to further weaken the security of our institutions," he said.

Penitentiary staff suffered between 4,000 and 5,000 000 physical assaults per year, according to Forget. Enditem