With 72,809 people behind bars, the number of prisoners in France stood at an all-time high in November. According to statistical data from the Ministry of Justice, French prisons had a prison density of 120%. It was 115.4% a year ago.
Never had France counted so many detainees in its prisons. With 72,809 people behind bars, the previous record of 72,575 detainees dating from March 2020 has therefore been beaten. At the time, to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, there were fewer entries into detention and early release measures to bring down the number of prisoners.
Since then, the statistics have risen steadily to approach this historic high last month, with 72,350 people incarcerated on October 1.
Condemnation of the ECHR
This trend, a structural evil which had earned France in January 2020 a condemnation from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), goes against that recorded in France’s European neighbors where the incarceration rate has fallen over the last ten years: -12.9% in Germany, -17.4% in the Netherlands.
Over one year, there are 2,997 more prisoners in France – there were 69,812 on October 1, 2021 – an increase of 4.3%.
According to official figures from the ministry, 15,469 detainees are currently in excess of the places available in penitentiary establishments (compared to 13,170 a year ago). Due to this overcrowding, 2,225 are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
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Of all detainees, 3.5% of inmates are women and 0.8% are minors. More than a quarter of detainees (26.9%) are defendants, that is to say people awaiting trial – and therefore presumed innocent. The prison density in remand centers, where these defendants and those sentenced to short sentences are imprisoned, climbs to 142.8%.
Fifty-six French prisons have a density greater than 150% (51 in mainland France and five overseas). This density even exceeds 200% in six establishments (compared to three last month): Carcassonne (215.6%), Nîmes (214.5%), Perpignan (204.6%), Foix (203.1%), Majicavo in Mayotte (200.9%) and Bordeaux-Gradignan.
723 detainees for 350 places
In this last penitentiary center in the South-West, it climbs to 206.6%: 350 operational places for 723 prisoners, and the key to living conditions regularly denounced.
The International Prison Observatory (OIP), the Bordeaux Bar Association and an association for the defense of detainees’ rights (A3D) have attempted legal action to put an end to this ” serious and massive violation of the fundamental rights of detainees “. The Council of State rejected their request on November 11.
In its “action plan” against prison overcrowding addressed to Europe, the French government states the construction of 15,000 new places prison by 2027 and increased use of alternative measures to detention.
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(With AFP)