Overview
- The trial targets about 5,500 detainees across La Santé (Paris), Arras, Dijon, Toulouse-Seysses, Toulon and Rennes-Vezin-le-Coquet.
- Measures include phone-jamming systems priced at €4–5 million per site, scanners for packages, millimetre-wave portals for people, and new X-ray tunnels.
- Exercise yards will be covered in 2026, with reinforced window grilles added to block handoffs through cell windows.
- An initial €29–30 million envelope funds the experiment, which the government aims to evaluate before expanding to all prisons if effective.
- Officials cite roughly 80,000 phones seized in 2024 and about 5,000 drone overflights in 2025; 58 prisons have anti-drone systems with 19 more due by the end of Q1 2026, and 1,000 extra officers will be hired next year.