Paris region prisons make extra room during the Olympics – Technologist

In the run-up to the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Ministry of Justice kept a close eye on whether prisons in the Paris region could cope with an exceptional influx of inmates.

In January, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti emphasized the priority action plans, among them an increased enforcement policy. The just minister wrote that there was a need for “the implementation of a determined criminal policy providing for rapid, strong and systematic responses to all criminal offenses whose purpose or effect is to disrupt the smooth running of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Targeted in particular were sexist and sexual threats or violence, offenses committed on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion or any other cause of discrimination, the use of drones for improper purposes, flying an aircraft over a prohibited area, or false bomb threats. The courts adapted accordingly, with additional hearings for summary proceedings.

It is difficult to act on certain parts of the penal chain without affecting the whole: Increased repression means more arrests, more proceedings and therefore – possibly –more prison sentences. Yet French prisons are experiencing a structural crisis of overcrowding, with an average density of more than 126%, according to figures from the Justice Ministry.

On the verge of overcrowding

According to the Paris inter-regional directorate of prison services, which covers the greater Paris region, where most of the Games events will be held, the overall density is over 138%. Among the prisons, remand prisons (short sentences and pre-trial prisoners) are particularly affected, with an occupancy rate of almost 153%.

In the greater Paris region, 12 establishments are on the verge of overcrowding and exceed 120% occupancy, including eight prisons. For example: Bois-d’Arcy, Yvelines, to the west of Paris, at 240.5%; Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, to the northeast of Paris, at 179%; Nanterre, to the northwest of Paris, at 175%; La Santé, in Paris, at nearly 152%; Fresnes, to the south of Paris, at nearly 140%.

The Justice Ministry was reassuring, pointing out that, as part of the plan to create 15,000 net new places by 2027, “886 places will be available to house prisoners.” These new places will be located at Meaux-Chauconin-Neufmontiers, Osny-Pontoise, Fleury-Mérogis, and at a new prison in Noisy-Le-Grand.

The new places are coupled with a “proactive policy,” as the Justice Ministry put it, to transfer “inmates from prisons to correctional facilities.” In other words, prisoners will be transferred from prisons to establishments that are not overcrowded, with the agreement of the prisoners and as part of their rehabilitation program. A system which, the ministry claimed, will be amply sufficient.