Biography
Dominique SIMONNOT
Dominique Simonnot was appointed Contrôleure générale des lieux de privation de liberté on 14 October 2020.
Dominique Simonnot, a French journalist specializing in legal affairs, was born on 4 August 1952 in Radolfzell (Baden-Wurttemberg).
After her baccalauréat and a few “odd jobs”, she worked in a Paris law firm while pursuing law studies at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in private law.
In 1979, she became an Integration and Probation Advisor (then referred to as a déléguée à la probation) for the Nanterre probation committee (now the Penitentiary Integration and Probation Department).
In 1991, she joined the Libération daily newspaper as a reporter for the General Information department (Police/Justice/Immigration), writing extensively on legal affairs, criminal policy, prison conditions (overpopulation, violence and madness in prison), as well as undocumented migrants, detention centres, vulnerable children and young offenders.
In 1995, she was elected President of Libération’s Society of Writers and Supervisory Board, a position she held until 2001. At the same time, she was appointed head of the General Information department.
Her column on emergency hearings, entitled Carnets de Justice, appeared every Monday from 1998 to 2006.
In 2006, she joined the satirical weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, where she continued to handle the same subjects, and in which her emergency hearings column appeared under the title Coup de Barre.
In 2017, this column in Le Canard Enchaîné was adapted for Nancy’s Manufacture Theatre by director Michel Didym, played by Bruno Ricci. The play also appeared at Paris’ Théâtre du Rond-Point that same year, under the title: Comparution immédiate, une justice sociale ? (Emergency hearings, social justice?). In 2019, a second adaptation of her column was staged, once again at Nancy’s Manufacture Theatre and, in January 2020, at the Rond‑Point in Paris.
Books:
- L’Immigration : une chance pour l’Europe ?, Casterman, 1997. (Les compacts de l’info collection)
- Justice en France : une loterie nationale, photographs by Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, La Martinière, 2003
- Plus noir dans la nuit, La Grande Grève des mineurs de 1948, Calmann-Lévy, 2014
- Amadora, Une enfance Tzigane, Seuil 2018
- Coup de Barre. Justice et injustices en France, Seuil 2019
Prefaces:
- On vulnerable children and young offenders: Aux marches du palais – mémoires d’un preneur d’otages, by Georges Courtois (2015) (Ed Le Nouvel Attila)
- On prison: in 2014, Du droit à l’évasion,by Jacques Colombat (Ed. Riveneuve)
- On minors: due for release in 2020, the reissue of Emile Morel’s book: Les Gueules noires. Illustrated by Steinlen. (Ed. À propos)
Adeline HAZAN (2014-2020)
Adeline Hazan was appointed Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty on 16 July 2014.
Born in Paris on 21 January 1956, Ms. Hazan graduated from the École Nationale de la Magistrature (‘French National School for the Judiciary’). As a magistrate, she served as sentencing judge at the Court of First Instance (TGI) of Châlons-sur-Marne from 1980 to 1983 and later a juvenile judge in the Parisian region until 1990. She also chaired the Syndicat de la Magistrature magistrates’ trade union from 1986 to 1989.
Having served as a policy office at the General Secretariat for Integration in 1990 and 1991, and later head of the department for delinquency prevention at the Interministerial Delegation for Urban Affairs from 1991 to 1995, she returned to her role as a juvenile judge at the Court of First Instance (TGI) of Paris.
In June 1997, Ms. Hazan was appointed as an advisor to the Minister for Employment and Solidarity, Martine Aubry, and was responsible for urban policy and integration until 1999.
As a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2008, Adeline Hazan chaired the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and later the Committee on Citizens’ Freedom and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, before ending her mandate at the European Parliament when she was elected Mayor of Reims on 21 May 2008. She served as Mayor of Reims until 4 April 2014 and later as a municipal councillor and councillor for the urban area of Reims before stepping down from both of these roles following her appointment to the position of Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty.
Adeline Hazan was National Secretary of the Socialist Party, with responsibility for societal issues, from 1995 to 2003 and later National Secretary responsible for women’s rights until 2014. She stood down from her role within the Socialist Party in July 2014 to devote herself to her role as Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty.
Jean-Marie DELARUE (2008-2014)
Born 1945. Married, father of five.
Studies in history and sociology at Ecole normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, at Ecole pratique des Hautes études and at Paris VIII University (1966-1970)
Agrégation (history, 1969). Master of Arts (sociology) (1970).
Teacher in lycée and University in La Réunion island and then Paris (1970-1976)
Concours and studies in Ecole nationale d’administration (1976-1979)
« Auditeur au Conseil d’Etat » (1979), « maître des requêtes » (1984), « conseiller d’Etat » (1997)
« Rapporteur » at the « section du contentieux », then chief of « centre de documentation du Conseil d’Etat » ; membre of the « section sociale » , « rapporteur » and then « commissaire du gouvernement » at the « Cour supérieure d’arbitrage ».
Various functions and reports for the Social Affairs minister and the Transport minister ; among them : « rapporteur de la commission d’orientation sur les transports » (1981-1982) ; General Secretary of the « Comité national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et de la santé » (1983 -1984) ; « conseiller juridique de la direction des transports terrestres » (Transport Department) (1982-1984).
« Conseiller technique » and « directeur-adjoint du cabinet » of the Economy and Finance minister (Jacques Delors,1984), the Labour minister (Michel Delebarre, 1985), the Transport, Housing and Road minister (Michel Delebarre,1988).
Head of the Social affairs department at the Commissariat général du Plan (1985)
“Délégué interministériel à la ville et au développement social urbain » (1991-1994)
Director of Civil liberties and Law at the Interior Department (1997-2001).
“Rapporteur général de la commission nationale de contrôle de la campagne pour l’élection présidentielle » (2002)
« Président de la 7ème sous-section du contentieux au Conseil d’Etat » (2002-2007), then Deputy Chairman of the Conseil d’Etat « section du contentieux » (2007-2008)
Chairman of the « Commission de suivi de la détention provisoire » (2002-2008)
General Controller of prisons and other places of no-freedom (Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté – June 2008)
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Author of various books and articles in law, administrative science and social field.
