Overcrowding in the French prison system :A Need for Reform?

By Natasha Darlington

Natasha Darlington is a third year at the University of Warwick studying Law.



It’s an issue that many countries are facing, but in France, overcrowding in prisons is at an all time high. On March 1, it was recorded that 69,430 people were incarcerated, and that the prisons were working at a capacity of 113%. Since, a penal law named ‘Taubira’ was signed in 2014.  As a result of this law, it has been said that 3000 more people have been incarcerated, only exacerbating the issue. This has lead to increasing tensions within the prisons as well as calls for penal reforms to try and settle the problem, an incentive particularly important during the 2017 French presidential cycle.

The issue of increasing detention


The proportion of detained persons in the prison population has been increasing dramatically in recent years, prompting calls for the Minister of Justice to tackle the problem. On January 1, the figures of those incarcerated represented 28.5% compared with 25% in January 2015. According to ‘The Monitoring Commission on Pre-trial Detention,’ who published a recent report,  there are numerous problems surrounding ‘the extraordinary and persistent incapacity.’ [1]


Increased calls for reform have come from the president of the Commission, Bruno Aubusson, who has argued that the ‘government and parliament are not looking to understand the origin of the problem.’ As stated by Aubusson, the problems associated with increased detention include tensions within the prison system, which makes rehabilitation already more difficult for certain inmates. [2]


This can be shown by a recent example in a prison in Fresnes, the second largest prison in France. The prison was put on alert due to ‘inhuman conditions,’ caused by prison overcrowding, the proliferation of rodents and the ‘constant climate of violence.’ This has led to certain human rights groups claiming that such conditions are contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. In order to understand how levels of incarceration are affecting prison conditions, it is important to analyse the origin of the issue. [3]
Why have prisons become so overpopulated in recent years?


According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice, the average length of time incarcerated has increased from 8 to 11 months since 2007, since many of the accused are detained for a longer period of time before even being sentenced, leading to greater concerns over the efficiency and effectiveness of the French criminal justice procedure in general.


It seems that this issue of temporary detention, whilst a short term issue, may be causing greater problems in terms of the overcrowding phenomenon. Statistics show that temporary detention accounts for 28.5% of incarcerated in 2017, a 4% increase in the last 3 years which inevitably shows that more ‘accused’ who haven’t yet been sentenced are taking places in prisons across France.


It appears that the penal reform of 2014 was at the heart of creating a stricter criminal justice system through adding new crimes and misdemeanors including prostitution, which was legal in France until April 2016. Other additional crimes added include squatting as well as aggressive panhandling. Other further reasons to describe the overcrowding phenomenon are that before 2007, each year, 6000 detained were freed under a presidential amnesty; however, this has changed due to recent criminal justice reforms.


According to Karim El Hadj, the penal reform Taubira in 2014 was a failure in the sense that it focused too much on punishment, rather than rehabilitation as one of its main aims. Thus, increasing prison sentences, rather than reflecting on various alternatives for petty crimes.  Such penal reforms have contributed to the overcrowding problem within the prison system. [4]


A possible solution


Politicians have pondered whether more penal reforms would be necessary, though this may not be the ideal solution at the current moment, due to the need for quick, transitory measures to solve certain imminent issues that French prisons are facing. Thus, Manuel Valls, former Prime Minister of France, recommended a goal of building 33 new penitentiaries’ which would allow for 16,000 more cells as a means of remedying overcrowding.


Valls argued that it was important to ‘act quickly since it takes around 10 years to build a prison.’ Though, in the meantime, the government would be working on a White Paper to enact the measures into law, which would be due in March 2017. In the White Paper, there were proposals to construct new establishments in high priority areas where there is an increased overcrowding problem, in the Paris region as well as Côte d’Azur. [5]


There are concerns that such measures may not be enough to tackle the issue of overcrowding, but it is important that the French government is able to act quickly in order to lessen the problem before it becomes too difficult to handle.


In light of the recent proposals, it seems, that to regain order within the prison system, the French government ought to reinforce alternative punishments to detention and focus on rehabilitation. Also, there is a need to ensure that trials are conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible so as to demonstrate that the French criminal system can ensure justice is served in a proficient and timely manner, otherwise its  justice system will be scrutinized on an international platform.

[1] “La justice impuissante face à la croissance de la détention provisoire.” Le Monde. Accessed April 19, 2017.
http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2017/01/26/la-justice-impuissante-face-a-la-croissance-de-la-detention-provisoire_5069207_1653578.html


[2] “La justice impuissante face à la croissance de la détention provisoire.” Le Monde. Accessed April 19, 2017.
http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2017/01/26/la-justice-impuissante-face-a-la-croissance-de-la-detention-provisoire_5069207_1653578.html


[3] “A la prison de Fresnes, alerte sur le ‘traitement inhumain’ et ‘dégradant’ des détenus.” Le Monde. Accessed April 19, 2017.
http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2016/12/14/la-controleure-des-prisons-alerte-sur-le-traitement-inhumain-des-detenus-a-fresnes_5048494_1653578.html


[4] “Pourquoi les prisons françaises sont-elles à ce point surpeuplées?” Le Monde. Accessed April 17, 2017.
http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/video/2017/04/13/pourquoi-les-prisons-francaises-sont-elles-a-ce-point-surpeuplees_5111002_1653578.html?xtmc=la_surpopulation_des_prisons&xtcr=2


[5] “Plan de lutte contre la surpopulation carcérale.” Le Monde. Accessed April 17, 2017.
http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2016/10/07/plan-de-lutte-contre-la-surpopulation-carcerale_5009634_1653578.html


The opinions and views expressed through this publication are the opinions of the designated authors and do not reflect the opinions or views of the Penn Undergraduate Law Journal, our staff, or our clients.