A general power outage has left one wing of Nice's maison d'arrêt without electricity for 48 hours, cutting ventilation to around 250 inmates during one of the summer's worst heatwaves, according to France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
The outage began in the early hours of Sunday July 13 into Monday, after water infiltrated the prison's electrical network, triggering a short circuit. The backup generator meant to take over in such situations failed to activate, reportedly due to a lack of maintenance. According to prison sources, the water damage stemmed from inmates taking makeshift showers overnight in an attempt to cool down.
Sabrina Bouadjmi, whose brother is held in the affected wing, told France 3 that conditions had become dangerous. "No electricity means no fridge, everything's going to spoil, and no fan," she said, adding that temperatures inside were nearing 40 degrees with no air circulating, forcing inmates to breathe through the bars of their cell windows. Her brother suffers from asthma and high blood pressure, and she said she worried a prison sentence shouldn't come at the cost of a detainee's health.
Nordine Souab, a prison representative, said meals were distributed by torchlight and inmates were exceptionally allowed access to collective showers on Tuesday evening to cool off. Regional intervention and security teams (ERIS) were deployed to support staff during the crisis. Bottled water was distributed free of charge on Wednesday, and exercise periods resumed as maintenance teams continued working to restore power to the affected wing.