Two years after being condemned by Europe for the unworthy conditions of detention in its penal establishments, France is called on Thursday by the International Observatory of Prisons to implement an emergency plan to end prison overcrowding. chronic.
Read alsoConstruction of prison places: has Emmanuel Macron kept his commitments?
This report, published by the OIP with the support of Amnesty International, draws up a severe inventory of “the ineffectiveness of the measures taken by the public authoritiesto reduce this endemic evil, and its consequences on respect for the right to dignity in prison. The OIP, at the origin of a dispute before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), had obtained in January 2020 the condemnation “historicalof France, in a decision enjoining it to definitively reduce its prison overcrowding.
Two years after this conviction, final since May 30, 2020, the number of prisoners in France is still at record levels. According to the latest figures from the prison administration, on May 1, French prisons had 71,038 prisoners for 60,722 operational places, i.e. an overall prison density of 117%.
“Historical context»
The health crisis had however given rise to a “mad hope“, in the words of the OIP: in the spring of 2020, due to lower entries into detention and early release measures, the average occupancy rate of prisons had fallen in two months below the 100% threshold. But “for lack of a proactive policy“, the number of detainees “kept growing“From the summer of 2020, she laments.
The association had already sounded the alarm with other organizations in June 2021 and urged the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron to “to act“, a year after a previous appeal summoning him to seize a “historic occasion“.
Read alsoJustice: is France one of the five European countries where the penalties are the most severe?
The conditions of detention areparticularly degraded and degrading» in remand centers, where people awaiting trial and those sentenced to short sentences are imprisoned, and where the average occupancy rate has now reached 138.9%.
As a visible consequence of this overcrowding, 1,850 prisoners are forced to sleep each evening on a mattress placed on the floor, while other prisoners are locked up 22 hours a day in twos, threes or fours in 9 m2 cells, a situation which heightens tensions and violence.
“Old and repeated” observation
This finding is “old and repeated“, emphasizes the OIP. France is regularly singled out for its unworthy conditions of detention by two independent administrative authorities responsible for ensuring respect for fundamental rights, the General Control of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) and the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights. (CNCDH). Faced with this situation, reforms have been initiated but “they largely miss the factors driving prison inflation – and many even promise to contribute to it“, estimates the OIP.
For France to put itselfcompliance» with the requirements of the ECHR, the OIP and Amnesty International call for the establishment of a national action plan against prison overcrowding, including in particular the establishment of a binding prison regulation mechanism. They also call for a review of budgetary priorities and a redirection of funds earmarked for the extension of the penitentiary stock towards the improvement of detention conditions and the strengthening of alternatives to incarceration.