CPT criticises overcrowding in French prisons
01 March 2004
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CPT) published a report on its visit to France in June 2003, which was considered to be "required by the circumstances" due to an "alarming and recent increase in overcrowding and suicides" in prisons. The CPT visited Loos prison, Saint Roche prison (Toulon), Clairvaux penitentiary and the Receipt, Research and Judicial Investigation Service for the 9th and 16th districts in Paris. The report welcomes the absence of allegations of ill-treatment, but notes that it was "a rare source of satisfaction" during the visit. It also highlighted that overcrowding (60,963 detainees for 48,603 places in July 2003) has "very serious repercussions" on prison life, both for inmates and prison guards. Some prisons have an occupancy rate of over 200%, including the two which were the object of the visit (239% in Loos and 240% in Saint Roche) and this results, among other things, in a curtailing of detainees' visiting hours and in growing tension between inmates and overworked prison guards. In Loos, the material conditions of detention are described as "critical" in terms of space, hygiene and health conditions, and a similar situation was appreciated in Saint Roche.
The report finds that the overcrowding in the prison system is a recent development, as the prison population had decreased between 1996 and 2001, and that it is not a result of the increase in criminality, as suggested by the government, but rather, as indicated by prison authorities, of a repressive criminal policy, that is expressed through "the introduction of new criminal charges and the widening of the scope of preventative detention, and of its length" - 21,925 detainees are in prison awaiting sentence. The CPT calls on the French authorities to elaborate a coherent policy against overcrowding in the French prison system, reminding them that people must be considered innocent until found guilty in a court, and that preventative arrest must be an "exceptional" measure. In its reply to the report, the French government indicated that overpopulation is not a result of the over-criminalisation of offences and criminal behaviour, but rather of the lack of prison places. To remedy this, it has put in place a plan to build prisons and penitentiary establishments worth 427 million Euros to provide 13,200 extra prison places.
CPT Report: CPT/Inf (2004) 6, Rapport au Gouvernement de la Republique française relatif a la visit effectuée en France par le Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture et des peines ou traitments inhumains ou dégradants (CPT) du 11 au 17 juin 2003; French government reply: CPT/Inf (2004) 7, Réponse du Gouvernement de la République française au rapport du Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture et des peines ou traitements inhumains ou dégradants relatif à sa visite effectuée en France du 11 au 17 juin 2003.