Penal colony 2.0? That is how Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin's announcements were perceived by French Guianese politicians during his visit to this overseas department of 300,000 residents located in South America from Saturday, May 17, to Monday, May 19. Darmanin told the weekly newspaper Le Journal du dimanche that he intended to create a high-security wing inside the future Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni prison, with the aim of "neutralizing the most dangerous figures in drug trafficking."

Of the 495 places planned in this prison, 60 will be reserved for drug trafficking kingpins, the minister said, and 15 will be "dedicated to Islamist/radicalized inmates" convicted of jihadist terrorism – a profile of inmate that is not currently present in French Guiana.

That was all it took to trigger a controversy, since the future Saint-Laurent prison is supposed to reduce prison overcrowding – currently at 134.7% – at the Rémire-Montjoly penitentiary center, the only prison in French Guiana, where 1,080 inmates are held in a facility designed for 616. "What we need is a new juvenile wing, not a high-security unit [QHS] for Islamists," criticized Manuella Dimanche, a prison officer and Union of Guyanese Workers member, on Monday during the minister's visit to the Rémire-Montjoly penitentiary center.

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