A record-breaking number of prisoners in France.
Official statistics in France show that the prison population of this country has recorded a new record with an unprecedented increase.
France has long suffered from the chronic problem of overcrowding in its prisons, but since the beginning of 2023, this problem has worsened month by month, and now, according to official statistics, the French prison population has reached a new record of 74,513 people.
According to the Euronews database, since the beginning of 2022, the number of prisoners in France has broken records almost month after month, and the new figure is the sixth new record of the population of these prisoners recorded in 2023.
On Monday, the French authorities announced the latest statistics on the number of prisoners in the country’s prisons, which is 74,513 people, a figure that is 2,446 more than the same time last year.
Also, the current number of French prisoners is 15,818 more than the number recorded during the Covid pandemic, as this pandemic led to a drastic reduction in the number of prisoners.
The population of prisoners in France has gradually returned to the level of the population before the Covid epidemic, but last April, for the first time, the number of prisoners in this country exceeded 73,000 people. Sometime later, the number of prisoners in France exceeded the record of 74,000 people.
According to Euronews, following the excessive increase in the number of prisoners in France, 2478 of them are now deprived of beds and are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor of their cells. Three years ago, this figure was 422 people, and on July 1, 2022, it was 1872 people.
France has one of the worst performances in Europe in terms of solving its prison overpopulation problem, and the European Court of Human Rights in January 2020 strongly criticized the French authorities for this problem.
Despite this situation, the French authorities have not shown any signs of trying to solve this problem.
The French government, after the violent protests in response to the murder of “Nael M.” The 17-year-old French teenager who was arrested by the police on June 27 in the suburbs of Paris supported what he called a “firm, swift, and systematic response” to the unrest.
The French Ministry of Justice announced by publishing statistics, as a result of these disturbances, 742 people received prison sentences, and “more than 600 people” were detained.
The “International Prison Monitor” Association has warned that the problem of overcrowding in prisons in France will probably get worse in the coming months as the time of the Olympic Games approaches.
In a report on July 19, the French Parliament emphasized the existence of an “urgent need” to implement a regulatory mechanism for the country’s prisons. Despite the publication of this report, the French authorities have not taken any steps in this direction.
