The prison overcrowding is again high in France. According to the latest statistics from the Department of Justice, as of 1is January 2022, 69,448 people were detained. That is an increase of nearly 11% compared to January 2021, with more than 6,700 additional detainees in one year.
At this rate, the bar of 70,000 detainees could be quickly crossed and the record
of April 2019 (71,828 detainees) exceeded. However, according to the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP), the situation in certain prisons is even worse than what the ministry’s statistics show. These are remand centers for men, these establishments which accommodate defendants in pre-trial detention (before being tried) and people sentenced to terms of less than two years in prison.
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The evolution of the prison population. © Ouest-France infographic
Officially, the occupancy rate there is nearly 135%: for just under 35,000 places there are 47,000 prisoners. But for the OIP, these data include the places of the quarters of women, minors, and in certain cases of semi-freedom
, closed places rarely saturated. In other words, the occupancy rate would not be 135%, but 180%. In eleven houses or detention areas, it would even exceed 200%: GradignanTulle, Limoges, La Roche-sur-Yon, Laval, Lorient, Foix, Carcassonne, Nîmes, Perpignan and Tarbes.
243% in Laval
In Laval (Mayenne), for example, the occupancy rate would reach 243% instead of the 178.6% displayed
: there would be one hundred detainees for forty-one places (and not 56 places). A situation all the more regrettable
according to the OIP, that France has already been condemned for its prison overcrowdingin January 2020, by the European Court of Human Rights.
Contacted, the Ministry of Justice refutes any intention to mislead anyone about the numbers. They are transparent and published monthly
. And recalls that to reduce overcrowding, it has facilitated the transfer of prisoners to less saturated penitentiary centers or that the courts are now informed of the prison occupancy rate.
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