Did you know that there is a room in every prison where inmates who commit faults during their incarceration are punished? The disciplinary committees, where prison guards and directors sit, in the presence of lawyers, are the last bastion still unknown to the general public. Since 2011, a “citizen-assessor”, from civil society, has been taking part and, for the first time, one of them is testifying. Hélène Erlingsen-Creste tells us how prisoners defend themselves, while talking about their daily lives. The report is damning: some prefer to go to the mitard than to live confined in cells of another century, overcrowded, where they can be extorted or beaten by their fellow prisoners. A world of violence but also of hope: these men and women dream of another life, far from prison. Today, more than ever, a reform of the conditions of detention is essential and this book exposes the urgency.