Yohann Tritz, edited by Laura Laplaud 1:49 p.m., April 30, 2022
The number of detainees has now exceeded 71,000 as of April 1.
A continuous increase for several months to reach 71,053 people in penitentiary establishments.
A prison overcrowding that pushes hundreds of prisoners to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
An increase in inmates but not in the number of prison officers.
The bar of 70,000 detainees in prison was reached last March and since then it has continued to increase.
Penitentiary establishments, which in principle have 60,683 operational places, now have 71,053 people in prison, i.e. an overall density of 117.1% against 107.1% a year ago.
1,878 prisoners sleep on mattresses on the floor
"When you have prisons that are already overcrowded and when you see the growing number of detainees who are incarcerated, that's not going to help us in our security and custody missions, but obviously we don't have the choice", says Samuel Gauthier, CGT general secretary of prison guards.
"The magistrates and the government will have to hear that it will no longer be possible," he argues.
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A number of inmates that doubles, triples, even quadruples in some establishments and a situation deplored by Samuel Gauthier.
“We end up with a management of 70-80 detainees per floor. All of this means that there is an overload of work, an additional workload, whether it is the daily management of movements, the distribution of meals, walks , workshops or visiting rooms."
A prison overcrowding which pushes 1,878 prisoners to sleep on mattresses placed on the floor against 830 in this case on April 1, 2021.