1.5
Population serving sentences or on remand and prisoners at 1 January of
each year ("stocks")
Source: Monthly Statistics of the Population of Persons Serving Sentences or on Remand and
Prisoners in France, French Ministry of Justice, Annuaire statistique de la Justice and the Prison
Administration Department, PMJ5.
Field: All penal institutions, France and its Overseas territories (progressive inclusion of French
Overseas territories as from 1990, completed in 2003).
Note: as of 2004, the gap between the two curves for those sentenced represents all of those
sentenced and imprisoned under remission of sentence without accommodation (placement externally
or placement under electronic surveillance; this gap will be found for total figures of those
imprisoned. Remand prisoners (for immediate committal or court appearance, awaiting sentence or
final order) are all included.
Comment: Over the past 40 years, the number of prisoners sentenced has grown steadily.
The growth profile of the number of "remand" (untried) prisoners (detained before final judgement)
is different: stable between 1985 and 1997, it declined until 2010 (although with a sharp increase again
between 2002 and 2004). It then rose slightly before shooting up again through 2016, whereas the
number of convicted prisoners is tending to stagnate. Although no immediate explanation is
forthcoming for this increase, the 2015-2016 report of the Temporary Detention Surveillance
Committee interestingly ties it in with the November 2015 terror attacks and the impact on judicial
practice of the state of emergency that was subsequently introduced. The increase observed does not
therefore describe an increase in placements in detention for acts of terrorism (these do not exceed
more than a few hundred since the state of emergency was established) but the increased reluctance
on the part of judges to release the persons concerned who present similar profiles to persons
implicated in this type of case. On this point, see the Temporary Detention Surveillance Committee,
2015-2016 Report, Paris, CSDP, 2016, pp. 27 and after.
154
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents