Clairvaux Prison is a high-security prison in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, on the site of the former Clairvaux Abbey

Clairvaux Abbey

Clairvaux Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, 15 km from Bar-sur-Aube, in the Aube département in northeastern France. The original building, founded in 1115 by St. Bernard, is now in ruins; a high-security prison, the Clairvaux Prison, now occupies the grounds...

.

1971 revolt

In this prison in 1971, convicts Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems took Nicole Comte, a nurse, and Guy Girardot, a prison guard, hostage

Hostage

A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

, and Buffet subsequently murdered them. Buffet and Bontems were captured. Bontems, whose defence counsel included Robert Badinter

Robert Badinter

Robert Badinter is a high-profile French criminal lawyer, university professor and politician mainly known for his struggle against the death penalty, the abolition of which he successfully sponsored in Parliament in 1981...

, contended that the murder was Buffet's idea.

Buffet affirmed that he desired death. Both were sentenced to death by the "assises" court

Cour d'assises

A French cour d'assises or Assize Court is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of major felonies or indictable offences, or crimes in French, and one of the few to be decided by jury trialUnder French law, a crime is any...

 in June 1972 and were guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

d.

2006 manifesto

On 16 January 2006, several detainees serving life sentences in Clairvaux Prison, and having all spent from 6 to 28 years in prison, signed a manifesto

Manifesto

A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...

 denouncing a "false" abolition of the death penalty, which they deem to have been transformed into a slow and continuous punishment. The convicts specifically denounce the French Republic which claimed, in accordance with the "advises of the European Council

European Council

The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...

", that the "enforcing of prison sentences... has been conceived not only in order to protect society and assure the punishment of the convict, but also to favour his amendement and prepare his rehabilitation

Rehabilitation (penology)

Rehabilitation means; To restore to useful life, as through therapy and education or To restore to good condition, operation, or capacity....

". They state that "In reality: everything is for the punishment."

Notable prisoners

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (also known as Carlos the Jackal

Carlos the Jackal

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....

) is currently serving his life sentence here.
The anarchist Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...

 was also imprisoned in Clairvaux for the five years between 1882 and 1886.

Sources

Clairvaux Prison - Ministry of Justice