France: poor prisons

Marion Moulin. First and foremost, being poor in prison means lacking the financial means to cover the cost of living in prison (an estimated €200 per month) as well as ongoing outside expenses. Around 16% of prisoners interviewed have no income and 31% receive the 20-euro “indigence” allowance paid to those without financial resources by the prison administration. Two-thirds of prisoners also report being in debt. Poverty is a factor of vulnerability. It often leads to racketeering, trafficking and tensions and affects people’s dignity; they cannot meet their basic needs, such as proper food, clothing, hygiene products or calling their relatives.

Rather than an increase in benefits, prisoners’ main request is the development of work opportunities in prison and the introduction of a decent wage. They want to be able to lead dignified lives in detention.

While 45% of people reported feeling poor before their imprisonment, 70% considered themselves poor during their detention

We wanted to explore the issue of poverty from a multidimensional perspective, without limiting ourselves to a purely economic view. Being poor, or foreign, makes it more difficult to access the law. There is also the element of isolation from others: 40% of interviewees receive no visitors and 67% say they feel alone or isolated. One in five prisoners has no access to employment, training or education during their detention.

Lastly, being poor in confinement means having reduced access to sentence adjustments, because required assurances cannot be provided (having a home, a job, etc.). Housing is a striking example. It is a key factor in reintegration. However, only 36% of people who were tenants before their imprisonment manage to keep their accommodation. A quarter of the respondents have no housing arrangements in place for their release.

MM. Nowadays, prison is still a social punishment that most commonly affects the poorest members of our society. It’s undeniable that today, prison is a way of managing poverty, away from the public eye. The data collected on the overrepresentation of the poorest people in detention are shocking. Only half of the people interviewed had a job and an income before their incarceration. A quarter received social benefits and 15% did not have any assets. Working-class people represent 39% of prisoners versus 20% of the general population. Around 35% of prisoners have no qualifications, as opposed to only 14% of the French population. This figure rises to 56% among 18-29 -year-olds, which is particularly worrying.

One of the causes of this phenomenon are summary trials.

These trials aim to deliver a quick judgement, due to a lack of judicial resources. Summary trials are particularly used to punish those who are unemployed, undocumented, have low incomes and minimal education, and who have no stable housing. These people are not able to present assurances. This increases the likelihood of a prison sentence by 8.4 times, compared to a typical judgement.

It’s a vicious cycle: the poorest are more likely to be sentenced to a prison term, prison makes people poorer, which leads to difficulties in reintegrating and a greater risk of reoffending upon release. And all of this is playing out amidst severe overcrowding in prisons.

MM. This is a known fact. Reports from the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté [CGLPL]) regularly point this out. France has been repeatedly condemned by both French and European courts for the indignity of its prison conditions and overcrowding. Tackling the latter is vital; during the health crisis, early releases demonstrated that it was possible to start reducing prison populations.

It is now time to move away from a purely punitive approach to sentencing. Prison can no longer be the baseline punishment. We believe that it is necessary to massively develop a range of alternatives and sentence adjustments that already exist in our law, but which are rarely used. It’s a question of intelligent punishment. Punishments can be carried out within society and will not have the impoverishing and isolating effects of prison. They are also cheaper and more effective when it comes to reintegration and the fight against reoffending.

There is plenty of room for hope, and progress has already been made. For example, he law for trust in the judicial system ¹ has allowed us to lay the foundations for status for detained workers. However, we regret that it does not go far enough, as it does not address the issues of pay and work flexibility. Nevertheless, it is a significant step forward on a issue that had not been addressed for several years. Many initiatives are implemented every day in the field, such as, trial integration through economic activity, which has been running since 2016. We must increase the funding allocated to these initiatives, so that they become the rule.

This involves a radical change of paradigm in our public policy. The plight of prisoners must be systematically taken into account in all public policies for combating poverty. This calls for a profound change in mentalities and in the way convicted persons are perceived. Such a change must start with the education of the general public.

In this report, we put forward 25 detailed recommendations. They were proposed by the prisoners themselves and we invite you to find out more about them!