Overview
- Official statistics show 88,829 people were detained on 1 June 2026, a rise of about 4,400 inmates year on year and a new national record.
- Available operational capacity was roughly 63,237 places on the same date, leaving overall occupancy at about 140.5% and 7,608 people forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
- Overcrowding is concentrated in short-term jails and key regions with densities of 173.2% in maisons d'arrêt, 164% in Île-de-France, 156.1% in Toulouse, and more than 200% in 34 units.
- The Contrôleure générale des lieux de privation de liberté, Dominique Simonnot, called the situation 'catastrophic' and renewed a call for a legally binding population-regulation mechanism that the justice minister opposes.
- The ministry plans 3,000 modular places with half due by 2027 while critics note fewer than one third of the 15,000 places promised in 2018 have been delivered and warn that adding cells alone has not reduced incarceration rates.