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Sarkozy says 'No' to mass pardons

All Acting Regiment

15:16 / 08.07.07

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to pardon prisoners on Bastille Day - breaking with a traditional gesture on the 14 July holiday.

Mr Sarkozy told French media he objected to using his powers of pardon as a way to relieve overcrowded jails.

Last July, Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, freed some 3,500 inmates in a Bastille Day amnesty.

French prisons house about 61,000 prisoners but were built to accommodate only 50,000.

Prison warning

Mr Sarkozy, who has a reputation as a law-and-order hardliner, said he was asked to release 3,000 prisoners.

"There will be no mass pardon," he told the Journal du Dimanche.

"Since when has the right to a pardon been used as a way of managing prisons?"

The president said he would only consider granting clemency in special circumstances.

What do you think?

05:40 / 09.07.07

My first thought is that Mr Sarkozy probably said 'Non.'

Outside of that, I'm not sure I see much of a topic here. Do you see it as significant that the French President has forgone his traditional mass pardon? Are you attempting to contrast it with President Bush's recent and controversial use of similar powers in the US? Are you worried about overcrowding in prisons in general, or overcrowding in French prisons in particular?

What is this topic about?

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:08 / 09.07.07

I think it's pretty obvious what this topic is about, surely? It's an odd choice to pick on as somehow unworthy of the Switchboard, sleaze...

Sarkozy is an admitted devotee of Tony Blair, and this specific action seems representative of his desire to appear "tough on crime" - italics there indicating that perception is all, since the media are unwilling to portray anyone willing to talk about how crime might actually be reduced as anything other than a big wet liberal softy. Instead, the trend in mainstream politics and the media seems to be to obsess over the punitive aspects of crime, and details are forsaken in favour of an approach that always dwells on the most violent and/or socially reprehensible forms of crime, and sees rehabilitation as not just impossible, but almost undesirable - you don't want a convicted criminal living next door even if he has become a reformed functional member of society, you want him IN JAIL WHERE HE BELONGS, goes the thinking.

Having said that, perhaps rather than being a recent trend, this is more an established attitude towards crime and the penal system that has just been pushing back harder recently against progressive ideas - e.g. the 19th century concept of "civic death" with regards to voting rights, see the Prison Reform Trust website for more on this and related issues. There, I learnt that prison numbers in the UK have reached record levels, for example...

22:13 / 09.07.07

Oh it's not that I think this thread is 'not worthy' of the Switchboard, it's more that I don't see it as particularly controversial that convicted criminals serve the sentences assigned to them by the sentencing judge. Which is not to say that parole doesn't have a place in a rehabilative prison system. But this story does not seem to preclude the use of pardons in the cases of egregious miscarrages of justice.

I should probably add that the example Sarkozy proffers of pardon based on 'merit' does appear extraordinarily crass electioneering. And yes, it should be acknowledged that Sarkozy is on record with his desire to hose those he sees as scum from off the streets, banging the tough on crime rhetoric drum, but I have a tough time seeing a lack of interference from the executive branch in the blanket early release of convicted prisoners before the end of their sentence as a problem, as a rule.

All Acting Regiment

22:22 / 09.07.07

Well, I think it's probably a foretaste of future unpleasantness. I started the thread to see if anyone had anything to say about Sarkozy, as I'm rather uninformed.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:16 / 10.07.07

I don't know a great deal about French politics, but (unrepresentative anecdotal non-poll alert!) every French person I know was utterly horrified when Sarkozy got in.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

15:29 / 10.07.07

I should probably add that the example Sarkozy's the example he proffers of pardon based on 'merit' does appear extraordinarily crass electioneering. And yes, it should be acknowledged that Sarkozy is on record with his desire to hose those he sees as scum from off the streets, banging the tough on crime rhetoric drum, but I have a tough time seeing a lack of interference from the executive branch in the blanket early release of convicted prisoners before the end of their sentence as a problem, as a rule.

I that's pretty much where I am on this as well. Sarkozy is in my opinion basically made of wrong on all fronts, bust as said I don't see a lack of executive pardons as a terrible thing in an of itself.

The thought does occur to me that this is a way of Sarkozy trying to bolster his hard-man image, whilst actually not doing anything particularly bad, and as such it's probably not an awful sign. When one is as unpleasant as Sarkozy appears to be it's no bad thing if one is also all talk and very little action.