The Ministry of Justice has revealed the statistics of people incarcerated in France as of December 1, 2024.
We thus learn that 97,372 people were imprisoned, compared to 91,855 on the same day in 2023. There were also 16,580 non-detained prisoners, 15,726 under electronic home surveillance and 854 in external placement.
Lack of places or too many prisoners in France, the problem remains the same: prison overcrowding puts penitentiary establishments under tension. Sixteen establishments have a density greater than or equal to 200%. The third worst total in Europe behind Cyprus and Romania…
In Isère, the Grenoble-Varces penitentiary center has an occupancy rate of 160.7% with 360 inmates for 224 places.
Often used for the incarceration of people arrested or convicted in the Rhône, Saint-Quentin-Fallavier is worse with 417 inmates for 239 places and an occupancy rate of 174.5%.
However, these are not the most suffering penitentiary establishments in the region. The Puy-en-Velay remand center (Haute-Loire) has an occupancy rate of 193.5% with 60 inmates for 31 places, followed by that of Chambéry (Savoie) and its rate of 191.4% , because of its 178 inmates for 93 places.
The new Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin announced last week his plan to build prisons with a few dozen places which would make it possible to incarcerate prisoners for “a few months, weeks or even days”.
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