L'Îlot is an association that supports nearly 2,000 people each year, with 5 accommodation centers and work reintegration workshops.
Experiencing detention exacerbates many causes of exclusion, including housing. “Housing is essential for us,” explains Félix de Belloy, “because there is no possible reintegration without housing. First, we find housing, and then we can start thinking about the next steps. But our social workers do not just offer a room and a bed. There is support to help build a professional project, to return to training, to find a job. There is also a return to family.”
The idea is obviously to find housing in autonomy. Thus, the association has developed systems to enable housing autonomy, such as rental intermediation, meaning that L'Îlot rents a small apartment and then sublets it to the resident, considering that they will be able to pay their rent, which they will settle with L'Îlot.
Support that has evolved over time. There is community service work, but also electronic monitoring and bracelets that have emerged since the association's creation. “Since we are not behind prison walls, we can work, train, see our families, so all these developments are also beneficial.”
“People need to understand how essential it is to welcome and re-welcome into our midst, into society, those who have served their time,” advocates Félix de Belloy. “And to free ourselves from the judgment that is tainted by a form of criminal record, as if former prisoners were tattooed for life with their sentence written on their foreheads. It’s a complex task because we must accept the idea that people can change.”
However, the figures show that recidivism remains high, with a rate of 66% of released prisoners reoffending. “What we need is to implement necessarily very comprehensive, quite heavy, and costly support to help people coming out of prison to succeed. A prisoner costs about €50,000 per year to the community, and we often think that with that €50,000, we could do perhaps more interesting things than putting them behind four walls. But it is also essential that those who go through the prison system find within themselves the will to succeed, to resist the temptation to reoffend, to reach out for the hands that are extended towards them.”
The best example might be the reintegration workshops in mechanics and catering created in Amiens. “Customers see that they can be served at the table by an ex-prisoner, that they can entrust their car to an ex-prisoner. And it goes very well, and it’s very concrete,” concludes Félix de Belloy.
