Months pass, prison overcrowding spreads. A new historic peak was reached in French prisons on April 1 with the unprecedented level of 73,080 inmates. This is the third month in a row that the number of detainees is on the rise in French prisons. The previous peak, in December 2022, was 72,836 detainees. Their number fell slightly in January before rising again in February.
French prisons had 60,899 operational places on April 1. With 73,080 detainees, the overall prison density is 120% against 117.1% a year ago and 118.7% on March 1. The occupancy rate even reached 142.2% in remand prisons, where prisoners awaiting trial – and therefore presumed innocent – and those sentenced to short sentences are imprisoned.
Contacted by AFP, Prune Missoffe, an official at the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP), deplored a “situation which continues to worsen, month after month”, despite the alerts on the “dramatic conditions of overcrowding”. in French prisons. This chronic evil of French prisons had earned France a conviction before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in January 2020.
More than 2,000 detainees sleep on a mattress on the floor
The government wants to build 15,000 additional prison places by the end of the five-year term. But if the implementation of this plan is progressing, it “is lagging significantly behind”, underlined the Court of Auditors in its annual report published in April.
“The 7,000 places which were to be delivered before the end of 2022 have not been built in full”, thus noted the Court of Auditors. In 2023, ten new establishments currently nearing completion, representing 1,958 places, should be delivered, indicated the Court of Auditors. A total of 24 establishments, i.e. half of the initial forecast, should be operational in 2024.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti must present Wednesday in the Council of Ministers his bill of programming and orientation of justice which ratifies in particular the construction of these new places of prison. According to ministry figures, 55 prisons have a density greater than 150%. This occupancy rate reaches or even exceeds 200% in eight establishments. Nearly 22,000 detainees are in structures whose density exceeds 150%. Due to this overcrowding, 2,151 are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor.