La mixité genrée à l’épreuve de la prison

In a context of increasing gender-mixing in French prisons since the 1990s, on both the staff and inmate sides, this research documents and investigates this process, in order to understand the issues at stake and measure the associated transformations and resistance. Using an interdisciplinary approach (law, sociology, socio-economics), this survey conducted in fourteen prisons was based on documentary work, legal analysis, the mobilization of architectural method tools and the articulation of qualitative (interviews and observations) and quantitative (questionnaires) methods. The study identified three dimensions in the implementation of gender mixing in detention. Firstly, we studied the mixing of staff and the gendered division of labor to which it leads. We then studied mixed interactions between detainees, to assess the general principle of non-mixity and its exceptions. Finally, our research focused on the (small) arrangements made by prison actors with the principle of gender separation. There is undoubtedly an institutional desire to promote gender mixing in prisons, which responds to two key challenges: equality between men and women in the workplace, and equal access for prisoners to the public prison service. However, internally, this desire comes up against a number of obstacles: the weight of social representations, the weight of material constraints and the expectations of inmates. Implementing gender mixing is therefore largely beyond the control of prison staff. It is also partly the result of constraints that weigh heavily on the choices that can be made. Organizing gender-mixing or not, therefore, requires a rethinking of detention facilities and of the use of incarceration, as is the case in other European penitentiary systems (Spain and Belgium). In France, however, this issue is far from being on the public agenda. Increasing gender mixing also comes up against structural obstacles outside the prison environment: how can we envisage deconstructing the gender order in prison when it is just as prevalent outside? Taking these issues into consideration is essential, for two reasons. Firstly, to ensure that gender mixing in prisons does not become a mere display policy, unaccompanied by concrete implementation measures for staff and inmates alike. Secondly, to ensure that prisons are not treated as specific institutions: prisons are merely a mirror of the gender relations that permeate society as a whole