Macron moves to decongest prisons

France will end prison terms of one month or less under a sentencing reform intended to ease prison overcrowding

The French president announced his reform plan last night from the national prison staff training school at Agen.  In addition to creating non-custodial options to replace terms of up to a year, Mr Macron has toughened conditions for serious offenders.

Conditions in French prisons are among the worst in western Europe, with double the number of prisoners for official cell space in the Paris region, and 20 per cent overcrowding in the rest of the country.

Under the reforms sentences of a month or less, most of which are imposed for serious driving offences, will now be replaced. A new sentence of home arrest, enforced by ankle tag monitors, will be created. Judges will also be encouraged to order community service as an alternative to prison.


Warning against misreading the changes, Mr Macron reiterated that the end of one-month sentences and alternatives to incarceration for sentences of under a year “do not mean easing up on the firmness that is needed in the face of crime but the opposite of that.”