The government's plan to build 15,000 prison places by 2027 "already appears undersized," says a parliamentary report revealed by Le Canard enchaîné and that AFP was able to consult Tuesday. This budget report, dated May 25 and written by LR deputy Patrick Hetzel, special rapporteur of the appropriations of the Justice mission of the National Assembly, comes as the number of detainees reached a new historical record on May 1, with 73,162 people incarcerated in French prisons.
As a sign of this congestion, "in May 2023, the Gradignan prison temporarily suspended its admissions due to the overcrowding of its cells," the report recalls. "This facility, like five other French prisons, has an occupancy rate of more than 200%," the report said.
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There is an "inability of the Ministry of Justice to absorb prison overcrowding and to guarantee people placed under judicial control conditions worthy of detention," says the deputy of Bas-Rhin. Recalling that many real estate programs have been launched since the late 1980s to create new detention places, he notes that "these plans have never achieved the objectives assigned to them".
'Another failure'
Announced in 2018, the "15,000" program aimed to create 7,000 net spaces in 2022 to be added 8,000 net spaces in 2027. Its estimated cost is 4.5 billion euros. However, the report points out, "as of December 31, 2022, only 2,441 new places had actually been put into service". "This new failure can be explained both by structural factors, common to all prison real estate programmes, and by weaknesses specific to this new programme."
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"Prison real estate programmes have never been able to respond to the challenges of prison overcrowding," insists the rapporteur. While of the 7,000 places announced in 2018, only 35% have actually been put into service, "delays are to be expected on the second phase of implementation of the program".
"This deadline will not be met"
"Of the 13,415 places remaining to be opened, the majority (7,360) are expected in 2027. Everything therefore suggests that this deadline will not be met and that a significant balance of places will be delivered by 2029 or 2030", details the report, which also evokes "significant recruitment difficulties" due to the "lack of attractiveness of the body of prison surveillance staff".
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Chronic prison overcrowding, which continues to worsen, led to the France being condemned in January 2020 by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
