73,162 people are detained in French prisons on May 1 for 60,867 places. The government is considering several solutions to combat this prison overcrowding.
On May 1, the number of detainees reached 73,162 for 60,867 places in France, i.e. a record overcrowding of 120.2%, according to figures published on Tuesday May 30 by the Ministry of Justice. Beyond the historically high figure, this overpopulation continues to raise questions. Because there are more than 12,000 places missing today.
>> INFOGRAPHICS. Justice reform: visualize the evolution of prison overcrowding since 1990
Emblematic case: the remand center of Gradignan, near Bordeaux where there are twice as many prisoners as there are places, far, far, from the constantly postponed goal of one prisoner per cell. The FO Penitentiary union even speaks, among men, of 130 “triplets”cells with three prisoners, one of whom sleeps on a mattress on the floor.
The General Controller of places of deprivation of liberty, Dominique Simonnot, had already denounced these conditions in July “inhuman” detention imposed “to the prisoners, to live three to a cell, 21 hours a day – in less than 1m² of living space per person – nibbled by bedbugs, invaded by cockroaches and rats”. On franceinfo on May 11, Joaquim Pueyo, PS mayor of Alençon, former director of the prisons of Fresnes and Fleury-Mérogis had described a “hard situation” even “explosive”.
Early release and construction of additional places
Among the solutions envisaged to remedy this problem of prison overcrowding, the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti insists on the possibility, for example, of early release of prisoners sentenced to sentences of less than two years. incarceration and boasts of the construction of 15,000 additional places by the end of the five-year term. A “famous promise smelling rancid, since these 15,000 places were already announced in 2017 for 2022” and have been “very modestly reduced, to 2,000 at the end of 2021”, notes the Comptroller General. On the other hand, there is no question for the Minister of defining “alert thresholds” per prison, as the expert report of the Estates General of Justice had nevertheless suggested.
Guest of franceinfo, Tuesday May 30, François Molins, Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, insisted: “You have to build” new places in prison to fight against prison overcrowding, “but that won’t solve the problem“. This overpopulation is “not normal” and that “prevents real reintegration actions”. You have to find a “other device“, he pleaded.
This chronic evil of prison overcrowding earned France a condemnation before the European Court of Human Rights in January 2020. In his annual report published on May 11, Dominique Simonnot castigates “guilty inertia” of the executive.