While they are already overcrowded, French prisons continue to fill up. The number of detainees rose slightly with 72,294 people incarcerated on February 1, according to data from the Ministry of Justice published on Wednesday. After a historic high on December 1, 2022 with 72,836 prisoners, the number of detainees had fallen slightly on January 1 with 72,173 people incarcerated.
On February 1, French prison establishments had 60,662 operational places, i.e. an overall prison density of 119.2%, against 115.3% a year ago. This occupancy rate is 141% in remand centers where prisoners awaiting trial – and therefore presumed innocent – and those sentenced to short sentences are imprisoned.
“Largely underestimated figures”, according to the OIP
“The Ministry of Justice displays figures that are largely underestimated”, for its part reacted the International Observatory of Prisons (OIP) association, denouncing “gaps” in these statistics. According to the association, the ministry’s figures present the “overall” occupancy rates which include places in the women’s quarters, minors and, in some cases, semi-freedom. However, these neighborhoods are rarely full, contributing mathematically to lowering the overall occupancy rate”.
“The specific figures concerning the occupancy rates of the men’s quarters, if they exist, are never made public”, deplored the OIP, which called for “the publication of transparent monthly figures on the actual occupancy of the men’s quarters of penal institutions”.
Mattresses placed on the floor
According to the ministry, 48 prisons have a density greater than 150%. This occupancy rate reaches or even exceeds 200% in five establishments (including 212% in Nîmes, 211.4% in Bordeaux-Gradignan and 214.1% in Carcassonne). Nearly 15,000 detainees are currently in excess of the places available and, because of this overcrowding, 2,036 are forced to sleep on mattresses placed on the floor.
Among the detainees, 19,390 are defendants, imprisoned awaiting trial. A total of 87,507 people were in prison on February 1, an increase from the previous month. Among them, there are 15,213 non-detainees subject to placement under an electronic bracelet (14,489) or placement outside (724). The number of female prisoners (3.6% of the prison population) and that of minors (0.8%) are stable.
This overpopulation earned France a condemnation three years ago by the European Court of Human Rights. To remedy this, the executive is counting on the construction of new places and on the effects of the extension of release under duress, which since January 1 has allowed the early release of prisoners sentenced to a sentence of less than two years. imprisonment and who has less than three months left to serve.