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February 25, 2025

Language in the French reintegration programme

Testimonial

Europe Activities Rehabilitation France

Thibaut Caudal authored a thesis on the meaning of custodial sentences and reintegration. This research led him to design a method for teaching French to people in prison at La Santé in Paris. Testimony.

February 13, 2025

Flight

Portfolio

Europe Rehabilitation France

A group of incarcerated people at the Meaux-Chauconin prison is collaborating with photographer Louis Bontemps on a photographic series, putting into images their impressions and feelings since the moment of their incarceration.

July 26, 2024

France: Olympic Games under control

Interview

Europe Justice Overcrowding France

This summer, Paris, along with other French cities, is hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The organisation of this event is accompanied by unprecedented security measures. OIP-SF looked at the resulting crackdown and its consequences.

April 3, 2024

Badinter, "a beacon of light in the mist"

Insights Interview

Europe Access to legal rights Justice Material conditions Death penalty France

Robert Badinter, a leading figure in the abolition of the death penalty in France, passed away on 9 February. Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, director of Together Against the Death Penalty, became close with the former minister over time through their mutual cause. Here’s the story.

March 17, 2024

France: prisons are at a breaking point

News

Europe Justice Overcrowding Alternatives France

As the number of prisoners continues to soar, France has among Europe’s most overcrowded prisons. But with the range of imprisonable crimes also growing, Emmanuel Macron’s government shows little interest in rehabilitating convicts outside the cell walls.

October 27, 2023

France: rediscovering one’s image

Insights Focus

Facilities Social ties Rehabilitation Work France

In 2011, photographer Béatrice Ropers visited Ferme de Moyembrie, an agricultural facility that takes in men nearing the end of their sentences. As the seasons changed, the subjects of her photographs shared their life stories, feelings and fears. She told us the story of one of her photographs.

October 26, 2023

France: immersed in a prison cell

Testimonial

Culture Europe Material conditions France

In 2016, Djibril Siby penned My Life in Prison, a play in which he shares his experience of life in detention. The success of the play has inspired Siby to return to the stage today. Testimonial.

September 20, 2023

France: "every time, we had to start over"

Testimonial

Europe Social ties France

Franck was incarcerated twice. He shares with Prison Insider how he experienced his two stints in prison, the impact they had on his wife and children, and the importance of communication in preserving family ties.

September 6, 2023

France: spectating life on the outside

Testimonial

Europe Social ties Rehabilitation France

Ryan* was incarcerated at Fresnes in April 2019. He stayed there for fourteen months. He speaks about being arrested right in front of his daughter, who was four years old at the time, the sadness of visits, and the difficulty of being far away, of feeling powerless and useless.

August 1, 2023

France: prison population hits all-time high; know why

News

Europe Overcrowding France

The situation further deteriorated after violent riots erupted across the country following the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent during a traffic stop in Nanterre last month.

June 13, 2023

France: breaking the silence, challenging the abuse

Opinion

Culture Justice Health Material conditions France

Antoine Lazarus’ dedication to protecting the rights of incarcerated individuals is immeasurable. This year, he chairs the 2023 edition of Concertina: Coming together to explore imprisonment. He sat down with Prison Insider to discuss his experience as a doctor, activist, and silence-breaker. Op-ed…

March 9, 2023

France: beyond the stigma

Interview

Europe Discipline Health Mental health Drugs France

They are banned, but present nonetheless; denying the presence of illicit substances inside prison walls is dangerous from a medical and health point of view. Doctors of the World explained its approach.

March 9, 2023

France: drugs in prison, an open secret

Interview

Europe Discipline Health Mental health Drugs France

A way for prisoners to cope with their sentence and a way for the administration to contain the prison population: is the circulation of drugs in everyone’s interest? Solenn Lebret-Dallaserra answered our questions.

March 7, 2023

France: "It's a topsy-turvy world"

Testimonial

Europe Material conditions Activities Work France

In January 2023, Raphaël M. was placed in a halfway house in Alsace. Five years earlier, he had been in the Strasbourg prison. He shares what he went through and his current experience. A two-part story.

March 7, 2023

France: on camera

Interview

Central America and the Caribbean Activities Rehabilitation France

Basse-Terre prison in Guadeloupe provides prisoner rehabilitation programmes. Film director Mark Alexandre Montout visited the prison to film a cookery competition. Interview.

February 3, 2023

France: "a change of tactics"

Interview

Crises Europe Justice Material conditions Facilities Overcrowding Alternatives France

In 2020, the French government was found to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights, due to demeaning detention conditions in French prisons. What is the state of affairs today? The National Human Rights Advisory Commission speaks on the issue.

January 12, 2023

France: “Non-places"

Insights Focus

Europe Facilities France

Grégoire Korganow is a photographer. His series Périphéries (Surroundings) reveals the geography of incarceration in France: places in the middle of nowhere farther than the eye can see. He spoke with Prison Insider about one of his photographs.

December 30, 2022

France : prisons in 2022

Analysis

Pre-trial detention Women Europe Minors Foreign prisoners LGBTQI Long-term prisoners Access to legal rights Discipline Justice Health Mental health Material conditions Suicide Overcrowding Torture Violence Activities Social ties Work France

All there is to know about French prisons in 2022. Key figures, life in detention, references: discover all the data gathered by Prison Insider.

November 24, 2022

A prison in the city

Insights

Europe Facilities Social ties France

The prison in Cherbourg is in the city centre.Prisoners and locals give their impressions of incarceration and of living behind and beside prison walls.

November 20, 2022

The Move

Insights

Europe Material conditions Facilities France

Moving from the stone walls of the 19th century to the concrete of the 21st: this is the story told in Catherine Rechard’s documentary Le déménagement (The Move). The story of a prison that left central Rennes in favour of the outskirts.

November 7, 2022

France: in search of freedom

Insights Focus

Europe Justice Rehabilitation France

Kevin Dubost is a photographer and social worker who led the project “À traversé” between 2019 and 2021: a series of photographs capturing the moments when people being released from prison experienced freedom. He describes one of his photographs.

June 27, 2022

France: Concertina, the second edition uses escapes as its theme

Interview

Culture Europe Justice France

How can we talk about imprisonment at convivial summer gatherings? That is the challenge of Concertina, the annual event that brings together people from near and far to discuss the many issues raised by freedom deprivation. Interview.

June 8, 2022

France: psychiatry and prison, on the edge

Interview

Europe Mental health France

There are many people who suffer from mental disorders in detention. The prison seems to have adapted to this situation and is trying to improve its care. At what price? Interview.

June 8, 2022

France: everyday madness

Testimonial

Europe Mental health Drugs Facilities Suicide France

Like at many other facilities, no two days are the same at the Baumettes Regional Mental Health Department for Prisons (Marseille). Eric Kania has been a psychiatrist there for over 20 years. He told us about his day-to-day.