The number of detainees reached a new historical record on May 1, with 73,162 people incarcerated in French prisons, according to official data from the Ministry of Justice consulted on Tuesday (May 30th) by AFP. The mark of 73,000 detainees was crossed on April 1. This is the fourth consecutive month that the number of people incarcerated has increased.
Chronic prison overcrowding, which continues to worsen, led to the France being condemned in January 2020 by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
'Culpable inertia'
With 60,867 operational places in prisons, the overall prison density now stands at 120.2% against 117% a year ago and 108% on May 1, 2021. The occupancy rate is 142.9% in remand prisons, where detainees awaiting trial, and therefore presumed innocent, and those sentenced to short sentences are held. It reaches or even exceeds 200% in six establishments: 250.9% in Majicavo (Mayotte), 225.4% in Bordeaux-Gradignan, 214.9% in Tulle, 213.5% in Nîmes, 209.2% in Foix, 208.2% in Perpignan.
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More than 15,500 prisoners are currently overcrowded compared to the places available in French prisons. Due to this overcrowding, 2241 detainees are forced to sleep on a mattress placed on the floor. Of those imprisoned, 19,852 are defendants, incarcerated pending trial. To fight against this endemic disease, the government wants the construction of 15,000 new prison places by 2027. The general controller of prisons, Dominique Simonnot, has strung in her annual report, published on May 11, the "guilty inertia" of the State in the face of this record overcrowding.
