Explore
The platform includes articles from external sources to supplement its available information. Reporting on the state of prisons around the world is a complex, laborious task. The Prison Insider team develops a weekly press review in three languages in order to provide wider coverage of current events in the world’s prisons. This monitoring process helps promote journalism by various media and reflects a commitment to transparency and collaboration.
France: prison population reaches record high
As of February 1, French prisons were housing more than 86,000 incarcerated people, despite having a capacity of around 63,000. This brought the occupancy rate to 136.9%. Overcrowding forced 6,596 imprisoned people to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
Source: Le Monde (02/03/2026)