French prisons had 62,673 detainees on January 1, a stable number compared to the previous month, according to statistical data from the Ministry of Justice published on Monday, February 1.
Read also: Prison population: increase of more than 1,000 inmates in one month
There were 62,935 detainees on December 1, a very slight drop from 262 people between December 2020 and January.
With 60,583 operational places in 188 prisons in France, the overall prison density stood at 103.4% on January 1, compared to 103.8% the previous month.
This density is 119.4% in remand centers, where prisoners awaiting trial and those sentenced to short sentences are held.
It is greater than or equal to 120% in around a third of establishments, and reaches 193% in Nîmes or 184.6% in La Roche-sur-Yon.
As of January 1, 688 detainees were forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor.
This number, which allows us to measure overcrowding, has been on the rise for several months (422 mattresses placed on the floor on July 1, 587 on October 1 and 654 on December 1).
Among the detainees, 17,856 are pre-trialed, that is to say imprisoned pending trial, ie a little less than a third of the prison population.
The proportion of women (3.6% of the total prison population) is stable, as is that of minors (around 1%).
A total of 75,021 people were placed in jail on 1 January, including 12,348 who were not detained and were placed under electronic surveillance or placed outside.
The prison population had experienced a significant and unprecedented decline during confinement last spring, due to a reduction in delinquency during this period and early release measures taken by the government to prevent a spread of the Covid epidemic. 19 in detention.
The number of detainees had thus fallen from 72,575 on March 16, 2020, a record, to 59,463 two months later.
The prison population has been over 62,000 prisoners since October.
In order to prevent a new wave of the coronavirus epidemic in prison, the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti recalled in a note sent at the end of October to the prosecution of the need to "
maintain as much as possible (...) a compatible prison density with health measures
”, by favoring alternatives to imprisonment for short sentences.
