The Health prison in Paris. - HOUPLINE RENARD / SIPA

With the Covid-19 epidemic, French prisons have counted nearly 10,000 fewer detainees since the beginning of March, according to the director of the Prison Administration. Consequence of these measures: the prison population rate fell to 103%, down 16 points.

"The decrease observed on April 13 is 9,923 detainees since March 16 (…) to reach 62,650 detainees," said Stéphane Bredin, heard by the Law Commission of the National Assembly. This sharp drop, which aims to avoid a health and security crisis in prisons, is notably due to a slowdown in judicial activity and to early releases.

A sharp drop in prison overcrowding

"The impact (of the crisis) on our detentions is very strong," said the director. The prison density "now stands at 103%". In remand centers, where defendants and short sentences are imprisoned, and where overcrowding is the heaviest, the density has fallen to 116%. The overcrowding rate has “decreased by 22% since the start of the crisis”.

On March 1, French prisons, faced for years with chronic overcrowding which resulted in France being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in January, had 72,400 detainees, an occupancy rate 119%. "We are approaching 10,000 fewer detainees," said the director of prison administration, estimating that the occupancy rate will drop "probably" to 100% in the course of next week.

The judicial system in slow motion

On April 8, Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet reported about 8,000 fewer detainees in 188 French prisons. This unprecedented decrease is due to "a double phenomenon", recalled Stéphane Bredin: "The increase in exits and the sharp drying up of entries under the effect of the slowdown in court activity and the promotion of alternatives to detention "

Thus, the number of nuts per day has "dropped sharply", to 80 on average against 215 before mid-March. At the same time, the number of detainee exits has increased from 209 per day to 404 on average. An order issued under the state of health emergency notably facilitates the early releases of detainees who are two months from the end of their sentence.

Other measures to relieve congestion in prisons, suspension of medical sentences, release of prisoners on remand. A circular, in mid-March, also called for postponing the execution of short prison terms and reserving pretrial detention for the most serious acts.

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