Number of prisoners reaches record high in France

The number of inmates in France reached a record high of 72,836 in December, according to statistics released by the Justice Ministry.

An inmate outside his cell at Gradignan prison, near Bordeaux, southwestern France on 3 October, 2022. © AFP - Thibaud Moritz

With the number of available prison places at 60,698, occupancy rates in French jails have blown out to 120 percent, compared to 115.2 percent a year ago.

Prisons have 27 more inmates than in November, a month in which prison overcrowding had exceeded the previous record of March 2020, on the eve of the first lockdown.

Measures taken at the time by the government to curb the Covid crisis in jails had led to a drastic fall in the number of prisoners.

Since then, the statistics have risen steadily until they approached an all-time high in October.

Over the year to December, the number of prisoners rose by 2,844, an increase of 4 percent.

Mattresses on the floor

Because of this overcrowding, 2,133 people are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor, according to the figures released by the Justice Ministry.

Also among the inmates, 3.6 percent are women and 0.8 percent are minors. More than a quarter of inmates (26.4 percent) are kept in custody.

Meanwhile the occupancy rate in jails holding prisoners awaiting trial, or those being held for less than one year, has hit 142.8 percent.

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