The courts are issuing fewer and fewer community service orders (TIG): 5,700 orders were issued in the first quarter of 2022, 30% fewer than in the first quarter of 2019, according to statistics from the Ministry of Justice.

Overcrowding is mainly concentrated in institutions where untried prisoners and people condemned to short sentences are held. In theory, these two populations are separated. This overpopulation also affects overseas facilities.
Several prisons – 48 in total – have occupancy rates of over 150% in march 2023. Some facilities have exceeded 200%, including Nîmes (212%), Bordeaux-Gradignan (211%) and Carcassonne (214%). This overpopulation is considered “chronic”.
The Camp Est facility (Nouméa, New Caledonia) holds 610 prisoners for a capacity of 410 as of February 2023. Four men share a 9-square-meter cell. Overcrowding results in tension and a lack of privacy. One prisoner says, “It’s hot, there’s dust in the cells. Some people blow a fuse, some break things. Some people can’t sleep. Then they have to take pills, they’re not well.” The presence of rats and cockroaches is reported, as well as leaky toilets, intense heat, and a faulty electrical grid. Camp Est’s state of disrepair had already been pointed out in both 2011 and 2019 by the Controller-General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty.

See the map

The “stop incarceration” intiative can be implemented for a specific period in a specific facility. It allows for the suspension of prison sentences in order to reduce overcrowding.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned France 17 times due to the conditions of detention, which violated Article 3 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
On 30 January 2020, in a judgement considered ‘historic’ by observers, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against France once more. The Court decided that Article 3 had been violated (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) due to poor conditions of detention. The Court ordered that the French authorities “must put an end to overcrowding in prisons and to degrading conditions of detention” (See press release). It noted that there is a “structural problem” and made recommendations on how to remedy it.
Between 2015 and 2018, a number of appeals were made by 32 prisoners held in the following prisons: Baie-Mahault (Guadeloupe), Ducos (Martinique), Fresnes, Nice, Nîmes, and Fa’aa Nuutania (French Polynesia). The European Court made a joint judgement “to broaden the scope” and ordered France to compensate the plaintiffs for damage suffered. The penalty is in excess of €500,000.
A new law “meant to guarantee respect and dignity while in prison”, was promulgated on 8 April 2021 as a response to the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) condemnation of France in January 2020. It introduced the right of recourse to a judge for anyone in prison, whether convicted or on remand, in order to put an end to undignified prison conditions. If it is a well-founded request, the judge can then order prison authorities to resolve the situation within one month, by any means possible, including a change of facilities. The Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, applauded the “clear, readable and effective provisions” which “respond to the need for humanity and dignity which must accompany all deprivation of liberty measures”. The law is not expected to be a tool for regulating the prison population. Some say it does not go far enough and emphasise the “structural” overcrowding as pointed out by the ECHR. One member of the Union des démocrates et indépendants (UDi) party criticised the bill as relying basically on transfers: “How is going from one overcrowded prison to another overcrowded prison an improvement?”

Between 2002 and 2023, the prison administration budget increased by 254%. The primary area of expenditure was the expansion of the prison estate.
In an analysis, the French branch of the International Prison Observatory stated that this choice to construct is “a recipe for disaster”. The association notes in particular the 5-billion-euro debt incurred by this choice, saying, “In addition to being inefficient, this choice exacerbates the problems it claims to resolve”.

The private sector is responsible for the day-to-day operations in 71 prisons: food services, accommodations, training, work, maintenance. For the past several years it has also been in charge of family visits. The penitentiary administration is responsible for the management, the surveillance, the registry (follow-up of imprisonment), probation and re-integration.

A parliamentary report dated 25 May casts doubts on the government’s pledges to increase the prison capacity. Patrick Hetzel, the National Assembly’s special rapporteur for the Justice Ministry’s budget, argues that the construction plan for 15,000 places is “already insufficient”. Outlined in two stages (7,000 places in 2022, and another 8,000 in 2027), the project is lagging: by the end of 2022, only 2,441 places were available. Hetzel identifies “management” issues as the cause of these setbacks. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice emphasises the challenges in securing land for new prisons and rejects any claims of administrative problems. It insists that the deadline will be met.
The business magazine Challenges questions the government’s policy, reminding readers that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has recommended against this approach since 2021: “increasing capacities is far from being a sustainable solution to the problem of prison overcrowding”.