Jail boss rented out prison room
Tenants charged €75 a night for accommodation behind bars that was described as ‘very secure’
A BOSS at Arles prison has been caught renting out his prison lodgings for €75 a night – he even described them on an internet site as being “very secure”.
The assistant head of detention of Arles prison, Bouches-du-Rhône, was charging tenants €450 a week to stay in his house which is located within the prison walls.
Arles prison is one of the highest-security prisons in France, with long-term prisoners accommodated in 150 individual cells, and his advert on leboncoin.fr used that as a selling point.
The officer’s house, which is one of several properties housing prison staff, had been converted so that he and his wife and child could live in the garage. He then rented out the house to tenants who would pass as family members.
Tenants just needed a digital code and a badge to enter the prison walls and access the house beneath the watchtower.
It was when one of the tenants mistakenly knocked on the door of one of the other prison officers' houses that the scam was revealed. The advert was immediately withdrawn.
Management at Arles prison did not comment, but an internal investigation is taking place and the executive has not been at work since. He had been in the post for less than a year.
Prison unions told France Bleu Provence radio station they were annoyed by the story, particularly “in the context that working conditions for wardens are continuing to degrade”.
Photo: Google Street View
