lawyers challenge Eric Dupond-Moretti as the Olympic Games approach

As of March 1, 76,766 people were incarcerated for 61,629 places, an occupancy rate of 124.6%.

The Paris Olympic Games must be “the opportunity to put a definitive end” to the situation “untenable” of overcrowding in French prisons, wrote, Monday April 8, the lawyers of several bars of Ile-de-France to the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti. “Beyond revolting promiscuity, prison overcrowding degrades accommodation conditions, limits access to work and training (…) undermines the working conditions of prison staff”And “This results in completely undignified conditions of detention”they warn.

France, repeatedly singled out for its detention conditions, has been breaking new historical records for prison overcrowding for six months. As of March 1, 76,766 people were incarcerated for 61,629 places, an occupancy rate of 124.6%. As the Olympic Games approach, the trend is rather towards firmness, in particular with the so-called “clean square” anti-drug operations which accentuate “still prison overcrowding”, say the lawyers. “At the same time, no solution seems to be envisaged by your ministry to remedy this situation”they lament.

“It is our duty to alert you”

With Covid-19 and the confinement of spring 2020, the lawyers recall, the government had taken measures to drastically reduce the number of detainees in prison, “without jeopardizing the safety of our fellow citizens”. For the first time in twenty years, the prison occupancy rate fell below 100%, before rising quickly. “France missed this opportunity to put an end to chronic prison overpopulation”regret the lawyers.

“Failing this, it is our duty as lawyers to alert you to the risks relating to this unprecedented overpopulation, in terms of suicides, violence, even generalized mutiny, risks aggravated by the possibility of a heatwave in the heart of Olympic summer”they warn in their letter.