Overcrowding in French prisons is wosening each month, with new government figures revealing that facilities are housing nearly 81,000 inmates in spaces designed for about 62,000 people – forcing thousands to sleep on floor mattresses.
Justice Ministry data for December 2024 puts the overall prison occupancy rate at 129.5 percent.
Conditions are particularly severe in about 15 prisons or prison units, where occupancy exceeds or equals 200 percent.
More than 4,000 inmates are forced to sleep on mattresses placed directly on the floor.
“This means that three to four people can be crammed into 9m² cells designed for one person,” Jean-Claude Mas, president of the International Prison Observatory, told RFI.
“This overcrowding accentuates the dilapidation and filth associated with prisons.”
French prison crisis deepens with cells holding four times capacity
State failures
France has introduced measures to reduce overcrowding, including banning prison sentences of less than one month, adjusting sentences and expanding community service.
Despite these efforts, France ranks third in Europe for prison overcrowding, behind Cyprus and Romania, according to a June report by the Council of Europe.
A Justice Ministry source described the situation as "an all-time record" and called it “regrettable”.
Former justice minister Didier Migaud recently warned that France would miss its goal of adding 15,000 prison spaces by 2027, a commitment made by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
Migaud said the delays were not due to funding issues but to resistance from local officials and residents.
Calls for reform
In October, the International Prison Observatory and some 30 other organisations, including the French lawyers' union, the magistrates' union and the barristers' union, issued a joint statement calling for fundamental reforms aimed at reducing the use and duration of incarceration.
“Prison must no longer be seen as the benchmark of the penal system, and its alternatives, far from being symbolic, must replace confinement," they said.
Mas criticised the lack of progress, saying: “For two years now, we have been experiencing record after record levels. And there's no sign of any progress in this area.”
