The COVID-19 pandemic, the prisoner, and the judge
This article concerns the complaints brought forth in France during the COVID-19 pandemic by certain prisoners seeking to challenge the conditions of their imprisonment. With direct access to the administrative decision databases, a full analysis of the complaints lodged by prisoners before the administrative courts reveals two key aspects : poor protection of the right to health of prisoners, and the weakness of the judicial control exercised by administrative judges. This socio-legal inquiry supports two hypotheses : that COVID-19 pandemic governance reveals the contradictions inherent to the right to health in prisons, and that the control of contagion underpins a hierarchy between individuals with regard to their legal statuses.