A court in France condemns the State for violating the rights of detainees: prisons infested with bugs and mold

Administrative wisdom in the French city of Montpellier condemned the French state for the inhuman and degrading treatment of convicts held in Perpignan prison.

The court's decision stated that the conditions in the prison violate the rights of detainees who are subjected to ill-treatment by the authorities.

The General Inspectorate's latest report submitted to the court showed that the prison occupancy rate is 280% for men, and that more than 300 detainees share about 130 beds.

The report found that "some sleep on mattresses on the floor, without space to move around, and most of them are infested with bed bugs. Mold is visible everywhere, on the walls and toilets, which are sometimes clogged," adding that "the windows were broken and the electrical network was faulty, causing At risk of fire for the prisoners."

The court ordered state authorities to ensure that dormitories are repaired and improved, fire threats are eliminated, and investigations are opened against guards for alleged mistreatment and humiliation of prisoners.

A report published by the French TV network "France Info" stated that France had broken a new record for the sixth time in a few months, regarding the number of detainees, after imprisoning more than 74,000 prisoners on the first of last July.

This prompted the European Court of Human Rights to condemn the French authorities for detaining large numbers of prisoners that exceed the capacity of the prisons, and obligated them to pay an amount of $50,000 to the plaintiffs.

A total of 16,643 detainees currently suffer from overcrowding, compared to the places available in French prisons. The total density of prisons now stands at 122.8%, compared to 118.7% just a year ago.

The report confirmed that the occupancy rate in pretrial detention prisons amounted to 146.3%, which are the prisons in which detainees awaiting trial are held. So they are presumed, according to the law, to be innocent.

To address this problem, the French government promised to build an additional 15,000 new places in prisons by 2027, stressing that the growing use of measures that constitute an alternative to detention "will show its effects in the coming months."

In 2020, the European Court of Human Rights found that France violated European Human Rights Convention Due to Overcrowded Prisons.