French prisons have never recorded such a large number of prisoners with the record figure of 80,130 people incarcerated for 62,357 places as of November 1, according to figures obtained on Friday November 29 from the Ministry of Justice. An endemic disease in France, prison overcrowding continues to break records month after month.
Sad record that France beats again. Overcrowding in prisons has continued to increase for two years. The overall prison density was 128.5% as of November 1, 2024. This prison density exceeds 200% in more than ten establishments and reaches 155.1% in remand centers, where prisoners awaiting release are incarcerated. trial and therefore presumed innocent, and those sentenced to short sentences.
“ This means 3-4 people crammed into 9 m² cells designed in principle for one person, 4 000 of them sleep on mattresses on the floor, alert Jean-Claude Mas, president of the International Prison Observatory interviewed by Amélie Beaucour from the French service of RFI. This overcrowding accentuates the dilapidation and sanitation, which is already emblematic of penitentiary establishments, and which also reduces almost to nothing the possibilities of support and access to personal rights. »
“ This is an unrivaled record », Confids a source at the Ministry of Justice to AFP, deploring the crossing of the threshold of 80,000 detainees. Among those incarcerated, 20,831 are defendants, in detention awaiting their final judgment. In total, 96,569 people were detained as of November 1. Among them, there are 16,439 non-detainees placed under an electronic bracelet or placed outside.
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However, measures have been taken to try to remedy this problem, such as the ban on prison sentences of less than one month, the adjustment of sentences and the development of community service.
Delay in the construction of new places
These new disastrous figures regarding prison overcrowding come as the Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, warned that the implementation of the plan to build 15,000 additional prison places, promised by Emmanuel Macron in 2017, cannot be honored. on time. They were planned for 2027, so far 4,500 have been delivered.
Hearing before the Senate Law Committee concerning the Justice budget for 2025, the Minister of Justice insisted on “ difficulties » met « in the schedule of major construction operations “, affirming that only 42% of the 15,000 new prison places should be operational in 2027, or 6,421,” if everything goes well “. “ The completion of “15,000″ plan will not be operationally possible before 2029, in the best case “, he clarified.
While waiting for this plan “ absolutely necessary » results, a source at the Ministry of Justice interviewed by AFP mentioned “ the rehabilitation of decommissioned penitentiary establishments “, “ construction of modular structures » as in Belgium or Germany or even “ conversion of unused public buildings “. Didier Migaud has just launched three emergency missions, one of which concerns the prison world.
“ Prison is necessary, it is there to punish and protect citizens, but incarceration must be carried out in conditions that are secure for the agents and dignified for the prisoners. “, explained the Minister of Justice. Faced with prison overpopulation, we must “ consider all possible tools » including “ alternative measures to incarceration for low-serious offenses “.
Calls for fundamental reforms
At the end of October, the International Prison Observatory and around thirty other organizations including the French Lawyers’ Union, the Magistrates’ Union and the National Bar Council pleaded in a common text for ” fundamental reforms aimed at reducing the use of incarceration and its duration, based on a change in society’s outlook “.
“ Prison must no longer be considered the benchmark of the penal system, and its alternatives, far from being symbolic, must replace confinement. », wished the signatory organizations. They insist on the urgency of rethinking penal and prison policy, while “ For 24 months we have been experiencing record after record levels of concern. », Underlines the president of the OIP, at the microphone of RFI.
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And nothing suggests any progress in this area, on the contrary, deplores Jean-Claude Mas. “ For the moment, there are no significant changes that indicate that the situation could improve. We see that there are a certain number of proposed laws that go in the other direction, with a desire to ensure that short sentences, for example, can be completely served in prison. So no, we are rather in a logic of security and repressive escalation which is not at all encouraging from the point of view of what it can mean in terms of over-incarceration and prison overpopulation. »
An “impossible reintegration”
In order to improve the situation, the General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty (CGLPL) Dominique Simonnot has been proposing since 2018 the “ inclusion in law of a system for regulating the prison population “. This could result in particular in the re-examination of files a few months before the end of the sentence by the judge, with the reintegration and probation services, to consider the release of a prisoner supervised by these same services. Which would avoid exits “ dry “, that is to say without any help, to favor outings “ with someone who looks after you and your file. »
But nothing has been done in this direction, and the government prefers to concentrate on the creation of new places rather than on the reintegration of prisoners, although the priority according to human rights organizations. Prison is also there to reintegrate and this reintegration is impossible, denounced Dominique Simonnot in an interview with RFI last year. Firstly because medical and surveillance staff are allocated according to the number of theoretical places in a prison and not according to the actual number of residents of the prison. » But also because “ workshops, teaching and learning activities are inaccessible because of the world », Points out the CGLPL.
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“ This overcrowding will embolize all aspects of daily life in a prison environment: access to care, access to activities, to training, to work, confirms the president of the International Prison Observatory. So, how can we hope that people can truly embark on reintegration pathways when they are so mistreated, when they are treated with such indignity and when they suffer repeated attacks on their most basic rights? »
In mid-March, the Council of Europe expressed its “ deep concern » about chronic French prison overpopulation. The institution invited the French authorities to “ seriously and quickly examine the idea of introducing a binding national prison regulation mechanism “. According to a study published in June by this human rights organization, France is among the worst performers in Europe in terms of prison overcrowding, in third position behind Cyprus and Romania.