Alarming prison numbers: overcrowding and risk of recidivism are increasing!

Alarming prison numbers: overcrowding and risk of recidivism are increasing!

There are currently 84,447 people in prison in France, equivalent to the population of cities such as Versailles or Dunkirk. This figure highlights the challenges facing the French prison system. Loud Radio France The topic of prison populations is often neglected in public discourse and is often only examined from the perspective of danger.

Concerns about the recidivism rate are not unfounded: a whopping 63% of released prisoners come into conflict with the law again within five years. This problem is further exacerbated by the alarming conditions in prisons. The overcrowded facilities, often facing 135% occupancy rates, offer limited access to work and training and inadequate reintegration projects.

Overcrowding and its consequences

Overcrowding in prisons is seen as particularly worrying. Many facilities appear to have reached the point of overload. This raises fundamental questions: Do short prison sentences, often only three to six months, really make sense? And what happens to those who disappear behind bars for decades? According to studies, the causes of the growth of the prison population worldwide are complex and also have their roots in France.

There are over 11 million people in prison worldwide, including more than 3 million in pre-trial detention. This has led to overcrowded prisons and inhumane conditions in many countries. Even in countries like the Philippines, overcrowding is alarmingly high at 460%. The USA, which has the largest prison population in the world, also shows how deeply rooted the problem is - there are over 2 million people behind bars, resulting in a disproportionately high proportion of prisoners.

Need for action

Global incarceration trends show that high incarceration rates not only result in high costs for taxpayers, but also disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations. In Brazil, for example, the prison population rose from 30,000 to over 750,000. Reforms appear urgently needed to address fundamental questions about how incarceration works.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed additional pressure on criminal justice reforms. Some countries have taken drastic measures to reduce prison populations. In the future, the aim must be to reduce the politicization of judgments and to find alternative solutions to criminal problems, according to the results Prison Studies.

At a time when more people are questioning imprisonment as a solution to social problems, it remains to be seen to what extent the discourse on prison sentences and their relevance for society will change in France.