The prison administration is reporting, in particular, a very sharp increase in people forced to sleep on a mattress on the ground due to lack of space.
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The number of prisoners in France reached a new record on April 1, with 77,450 people incarcerated, or 4,370 more than the previous year. This is shown by figures published by the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday April 30.
This is the highest number of prisoners ever recorded, according to prison administration statistics, with a very sharp increase in people forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor due to lack of space. The previous record dates from March with 76,766 people incarcerated in France for 61,629 operational places.
The Council of Europe “deeply concerned” by the subject
In a decision handed down in March, the members of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had already expressed “their deep concern” faced with the average occupancy rate of French prisons and remand centers, which continues to increase.
They had invited “urge the authorities to reconsider their strategy for combating overpopulation, by tackling its root causes and evaluating, in detail, the impact of the latest reforms” and had issued “the idea of introducing a binding national prison regulation mechanism, according to the modalities that it will be up to them to determine”. The government still plans to deploy 15,000 new prison places by 2027.
