The confidentiality of people incarcerated at Sarreguemines Prison (Moselle) is not respected when they are examined at the public hospital. The medical consultations take place with surveillance staff present, violating doctor-patient confidentiality.

Prisoners say they are suffering from the cold. Several contacted the French branch of the International Prison Observatory (OIP-SF). One woman at Fleury-Mérogis reported that “it’s colder in the cell than outside.” At Lutterbach, a prisoner says, “It’s so cold that if I melt butter in a frying pan, it becomes solid again in 1 minute and 45 seconds.” The OIP-SF published a statement on the issue, concluding that “many prisoners will spend the winter shivering in their cells.”

Since 2021, the CGLPL has published emergency recommendations on five occasions following visits to correctional facilities. Seventeen visits focused on monitoring dignity in prison conditions in remand prisons have been carried out since 2022. The CGLPL notes that “the descriptions and the resulting recommendations are distressingly similar.”

The Controller-General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty noted, during a third visit to Béziers Prison in 2022, that previous recommendations had “hardly been followed”.

On 11 December, the prison density at Bordeaux-Gradignan reached 211%. This is one of the highest prison densities in France. A parliamentary visit carried out at that date noted around one hundred triple-occupancy cells. A suspension of admissions for one month, in May, did not resolve the situation. At present, 644 men live in spaces meant for 305, and 49 women in spaces meant for 22.

At Sarreguemines Prison, half of the prisoners have personal space measuring less than three square metres.

As of April, the Vesoul prison held 73 prisoners despite a capacity of 40.

Gradignan prison is suspending admissions in May as part of the “stop incarceration” initiative. This measure is expected to last for a minimum of one month, addressing the issue of severe overcrowding.

The facility is currently holding twice the number of prisoners than its intended capacity. Prison conditions are deemed deplorable: mould, mattresses on the floor, and cramped spaces. There are few activities available for prisoners to engage in outside their cells. The undermanned staff feel overburdened. The trafficking of drugs and medicines is reportedly widespread.

Several prisons – 48 in total – have occupancy rates of over 150%. Some facilities have exceeded 200%, including Nîmes (212%), Bordeaux-Gradignan (211%) and Carcassonne (214%). This overpopulation is considered “chronic”.

The Périgueux prison has reached record levels of overcrowding. The facility has a capacity of 99 and is currently holding 165 prisoners. A union for guards (Force ouvrière) predicts a “catastrophe” if the situation does not change.

Four men share a 9-square-meter cell in the Camp Est facility (Nouméa, New Caledonia). The facility holds 610 prisoners, despite having a capacity of 410. 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 has been reported, the toilets leak, the heat is sometimes intense, and the electrical grid is faulty.

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. In 2020, the administrative court had ordered the prison service to “put an end to the various health violations in the detention centre units for men, particularly in the ‘shipping container’ cells”. The juvenile unit has been renovated, but the measures are considered insufficient. In 2020, the French branch of the International Prison Observatory described the measures as being similar to putting “a bandage on a dilapidated and unsanitary building” and said that the proper solution would be to “demolish Camp Est and rebuild it”.

A report issued in May 2023 references 225 high-risk prisoners (DPS) among a total of 73,000 prisoners. This document was produced following a parliamentary committee established to investigate the 2022 death of Yvan Colonna in Arles prison. The report highlights that “the legal framework of the DPS registry is at the regulatory level and lacks a clear definition in legislation”. It points out numerous malfunctions and states that the DPS status “is not intended to be inherently permanent”. The report proposes 29 recommendations to reform this status, including revisiting the criteria for inclusion in the DPS registry and ensuring greater clarity in the justification for an individual’s inclusion.

The designation of “high-risk prisoner” (DPS) was introduced in 1967. It serves to categorise certain prisoners based on their assumed threat level or escape risk. The decision to add, maintain, or remove prisoners from this list falls to the Minister of Justice. Consequently, specific security measures are implemented, such as assigning prisoners to cells close to guard stations, enforcing stringent monitoring both day and night, intensifying vigilance during inspection and search operations, and conducting thorough reviews of all applications to participate in prison activities. Each DPS may be given a personal directive at the facility level, introducing additional precautions (individual cell, strengthened escort during movement, regular reports, etc.). Annually, the DPS system applies to between 200 and 250 prisoners.¹

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 generation of 15,000 prison spots is scheduled for 2027. The 24,000 spots created between 1990 and 2022 have not reduced prison overcrowding. The business magazine Challenges questioned 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”.

The number of girls currently incarcerated at the juvenile facility in Meyzieu (Rhône) exceeds the number of available places. The unit reserved for them has five cells. In mid-January, there were seven of them. The prison service installed camp beds to accommodate them. This solution is a violation of the principle of individual cells, which is ordinarily respected in prisons for minors. The prison service relocated the young girls at the end of March so that they could have their own individual cells. A staff member at the facility says that these changes “hinder support and create disruptions”.

The government established a new roadmap for suicide prevention in 2022. A handbook on prevention should be distributed among the staff in late March 2023. This plan follows on from the plan launched in 2009, which included 20 measures. One planned measure was the implementation of support prisoners, but this provision has received criticism.

The French government is preparing to invest 4.4 billion euros by 2027 to complete construction and renovation work on prison buildings. The administration’s budget has increased by 251% over 21 years. The primary expense has been the expansion of the prison estate.