French prisons are approximately 137% full. The Council of Europe has declared that the country’s detention facilities have turned into “human warehouses”.
According to the European bureau of “Elchi”, figures from the country’s Ministry of Justice as of early February show that more than 86,000 prisoners are held in prisons with a capacity of approximately 63,000 people.
The institution noted that since then, prisons continue to admit prisoners. The French Ministry of Justice believes that the problem can be solved by building new modular prisons.
The Council of Europe report states that French prisons are only behind Cyprus and Slovenia in Europe in terms of occupancy rate.
Many European countries facing difficulties in accommodating prisoners are also looking for a solution in renting prison places in other EU countries. Representatives of the Swedish and Belgian Ministries of Justice stated that they tried to solve the problem by sending their prisoners to Estonia and discussed such a possibility. However, official Tallinn categorically rejected this scenario.