The prison population increased by 10.5% in 2015 compared to the previous year. The number of prisoners had risen to 7.544 by the 31 December 2015. The official capacity of the prison estate was 4.000 seats at that moment. The overall occupancy rate was estimated at 188%.

On the 31 December 2015, 49% of convicts are serving sentences ranging from one to three years in prison, 20% a sentence of between three and five years and 12 % a sentence of between five and ten years.

Those awaiting trial represented 44.4% of the prison population on the 31 December 2015. The law provides for a separation between defendants and convicts. In practice, they were housed in the same buildings. The separation of men, women and minors is hardly applied in jail.

The cases are treated according to their geographic location. Those within the capital are treated more quickly because this region has more human resources than the provinces. In Ouagadougou, a person in police custody may be submitted to the investigating judge within three to four days depending on the nature of the offense. Defendants sometimes wait more than a year before receiving their convictions because of administrative delays or the lack of relationships that can advance their case.

On the 31 December 2015, the number of women prisoners reached 113, representing 1.5 % of the prison population.

During 2015, 317 women were jailed.

Women in custody regularly wait up to 14 months before being judged. They are not systematically informed of the length of their sentence.

They live inside men’s penitentiaries, in separate spaces. They are all housed in a large dormitory. Minors share the same cells as adults.

The children placed in detention with their mothers did not receive appropriate support or required areas.

On the 31 December 2015, the number of minors in detention reached 241, representing 3.2 % of the population prison.

In 2015, 536 minors were jailed.

Minors may be jailed from the age of 12 years. They must pass through a special jail (maison d’arrêt et de correction, MAC) during their confinement. Social workers decide whether to transfer minors to one of the four social reintegration centers dedicated to them in terms of availability. These centers have high occupancy levels. They welcome indiscriminately girls and boys between 12 and 18 years old. This is a full prison sentence.

Some juvenile prisoners served their sentence in an adult prison. Those convicted of using knives or firearms cannot be admitted to a juvenile rehabilitation center. Minors are separated from adults in MACs. Girls are however held with women. The prisons have quarters reserved for underage boys. They are housed in a dormitory.

The social reintegration centers offer workshops in mechanics, electricity, sewing, carpentry and farming. Prison conditions here are generally better than in the MAC.

Social reintegration centers include an infirmary and a social service.

Juvenile prisoners are not tracked after their release. The social services of the MACs are not informed of their release or of any subsequent offenses. There are no statistics available to evaluate the effectiveness of these centers in the fight against recidivism.

In 2004, the African Prison Association (L’Association Pénitentiaire Africaine, APA) began the construction of the Social Reintegration Center in Laye. UNICEF and Terre des Hommes Italy are involved. The State acts primarily on the financial level. The center is located about 40 kilometers from Ouagadougou. It is an open center in the bush. The juvenile prisoners transferred to the center of Laye do not necessarily come from Ouagadougou. The center can accommodate 100 minors for up to three years. Most stay an average of two years. In April 2017, it accommodated 64 boys and eight girls. They slept on the spot in dormitories. Civic education and awareness courses on sexually transmitted infections are organized. A psychologist provides consultations once a week.

Prison conditions remained good until 2009. Since then, young people have been raising issues related to detention conditions such as the lack of mosquito nets. They also reported deterioration in material conditions following the decline in state funding since the beginning of 2010. This reduction is general in the prison administration and is not restricted to social reintegration centers. When they leave this center, a work kit is delivered to minors in order to enable them to practice the profession to which they have been trained for, such as carpentry or mechanical tools, or even money to allow them to settle.

As of the 31 December 2015, 225 people aged 60 and over were being imprisoned, representing 2. 3 % of the 9.601 people jailed in the year 2015.