French Prosecutor Admits 17 Minors Spent Night Without Mattresses After Protest Arrests

A French prosecutor has admitted that 17 minors spent a night without mattresses in cold, dirty cells at the Bobigny courthouse this week, after arrests tied to France's protest unrest, in a case testing how a democracy treats detained children.

The Seine-Saint-Denis bar association raised the alarm after four of its lawyers inspected the courthouse holding facility early on Wednesday. They found that the children, aged under 18, had been held overnight from Tuesday with no bedding, even though collective cells sat empty nearby.

Alexandre de Bosschère, the prosecutor of Bobigny, conceded the same evening that the minors had not been received overnight in 'acceptable conditions'. His office had earlier pledged that no minor would spend the night there except in exceptional cases.

'Firmness cannot justify depriving children of their dignity,' the bar association said, as lawyers, teachers, and elected officials gathered outside the court chanting in support of the detained students.

What the Lawyers Found

The lawyers, sent by the head of the bar, Sandrine Beressi, documented their visit in an 18-page report backed by photographs. They recorded no mattresses for any of the minors, survival blankets as the only covering, and at least three children shivering in the cold. Some cells held waste and bottles of urine left by earlier occupants, and benches too short for taller teenagers to lie on. Female minors were placed in a corridor meant for adult men because no dedicated cell was free.

Looting Arrests Behind the Case

Most of the detained minors were caught up in the looting that followed France's nationwide protests. De Bosschère said 14 of the 17 were brought in over a single aggravated theft at a sports shop in Saint-Denis on Sunday evening, which investigators linked to social media calls to loot town-centre stores that weekend. He argued that this rare cluster of cases explained why so many minors appeared at the facility at once.

The prosecutor also pushed back on part of the bar's account. He said photographs showing two minors lying in an individual cell were taken after morning cleaning began, which forced police to group detainees together.

A Facility With a Troubled Record

The Bobigny site has drawn official criticism before. In November 2025, two police officers were placed under formal investigation over allegations of rape and sexual assault involving a woman held at the same facility, prompting the bar to suspend its lawyers' presence there and triggering questions in the National Assembly about conditions and oversight. Lawmakers have raised the facility's state for years.

Why the Case Matters

The row lands as France reckons with a wave of unrest that has rattled the government. Police arrested about 1,800 people during the 17 October demonstrations, which drew roughly 550,000 people nationwide, according to authorities, against rising living costs and poor school conditions. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that those who looted would 'pay back' the damage.

For a movement that began with students demanding safer, warmer classrooms, the sight of children left on bare floors has handed campaigners a potent symbol, and it puts France's treatment of detained minors under fresh scrutiny.