The authors of an emergency inquiry report, the conclusions of which have been made public by the French ministry of justice, have raised alarm bells about the critical situation of “prison overcrowding” and called for “an exceptional reduction of sentences” for “all prisoners.” Were the report’s suggestions heeded, the doors to state laxity would become wide open, exacerbating the already woeful security situation in France.
The report had been requested several months ago by former justice minister Didier Migaud. It was finally published by his successor, Gérald Darmanin.
The document, which is the result of an inquiry carried out by various actors in the justice and prison sectors (magistrates, lawyers, and prison directors), provides precise figures on the phenomenon of prison overcrowding, well known to the French public. As of April 1st, 2025, there were 82,921 prisoners for 62,358 places, representing an overall prison density of 133%.
For the authors of the report, there is only one solution that must be implemented as a matter of urgency: a reduction in sentences for all convicted prisoners. This is a curious method of releasing criminals back into society to compensate for the shortcomings of an administration that is incapable of planning and providing the means for the punishment of those who contravene public order and endanger the safety of citizens.
The recommendation is not unprecedented in France. Responding to our questions, Pierre-Marie Sève, director of the Institute for Justice, points out that amnesties and sentence reductions were granted by French governments in 1981 and 1988, and were followed by a significant rise in crime in the same year. In the spring of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduction in sentences was decreed, which for the first time in 20 years brought prison occupancy rates below 100%. Only a few convicts were excluded from the measure (those guilty of domestic violence, crime or terrorism). Professionals in the sector are even calling for the introduction of a regulatory threshold so that such a sentence reduction campaign is triggered “automatically” when the threshold is exceeded.
The signal sent by such a recommendation is disastrous: it would imply that prison sentences are useless or too long, since they can be reduced by a simple decision of the public authorities, without any harm to society.
For the time being, justice minister Gérald Darmanin has said he is strongly opposed to this ‘solution’, as is his counterpart at the interior ministry, Bruno Retailleau. At a time when the justice system is perceived as lax by an overwhelming majority of French people, the decision to reduce sentences would be very poorly received politically.
Alternative solutions exist. The first and most obvious is the construction of additional prison places, which has always been promised but never delivered. Darmanin has come out in favour of building 3,000 places by 2027, in prefabricated structures, to speed up the process. “These are real prisons, but built in factories, as our British and German friends have done, which will save us a lot of time and money,” explained the minister, pointing out that a prison place built in this way costs half as much as a conventional one.
A return to truly dissuasive justice is also an excellent way to combat the inflation of prison sentences, which are often only partially enforced and no longer deter offenders, Sève points out.
Although considered a taboo subject, the issue of deporting foreign offenders serving sentences in France is regularly raised, but without result: foreigners now account for around a quarter of the prison population. The Institute for Justice is calling for the automatic deportation of foreign criminals to be enshrined in French law, as this is not currently guaranteed for all crimes.
