In 2024 and 2025, Dominique Simonnot and Mari Goicoechea took part in unannounced inspections of eleven places of deprivation of liberty, equipped with microphones for the first time. This series, consisting of a prologue and six episodes, gives a voice to the experiences of those incarcerated, from their first day to the prospect of their release, including their time in communal areas, places known as “surenfermement” (overcrowded cells), and areas open to visitors.
Prologue: A few key points
There are more than 5,000 places of confinement in France. Very few people in France are allowed to enter them without warning, observe what goes on inside, and report publicly on how they operate. Before stepping through the doors, it is important to review the missions and scope of action of the Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL).
Episode 1: First Days
Dominique Simonnot, Comptroller General, and her team have unrestricted access to places of confinement, day and night. In this episode, the CGLPL gives a voice to those who have been incarcerated for the first time, what they observed, and how they felt. In prison, psychiatric hospitals, and administrative detention centers, the challenges of the first few days are not the same. But they all describe the shock of being locked up.
Episode 2: Between Four Walls
Of all places where people are deprived of their liberty, prison cells are the spaces where confinement is strictest and longest. And in many prisons, these four walls house several people. In remand centers, where 70% of prisoners are incarcerated, prison overcrowding reached unprecedented levels in 2025. Up to four prisoners are crammed into 9m² cells, where they live in promiscuity, indignity, and vulnerability. But the cell is also a place where life goes on.
Episode 3: Keeping busy
All places of deprivation of liberty have communal areas that provide a break from continuous confinement. Inspectors spend time there because they reflect the freedom of those confined to come and go, or the lack thereof. Exercise yards, gardens, activity rooms, workshops: although access to these spaces (and the people who run them) varies from one facility to another, they are essential unless the harmful effects of confinement are to be exacerbated.
Episode 4: In the Dungeon
In all places of deprivation of liberty, there are areas of “super-confinement”: isolation rooms in psychiatric hospitals, isolation and disciplinary quarters in prisons, and isolation rooms in administrative detention centers. The harmful effects of isolation on the mental and physical health of prisoners are well known. The CGLPL gives a voice to those who have experienced it.
Episode 5: Open to the public
Maintaining a social and family life is one of the fundamental rights of people in prison. The conditions under which visitors are received vary widely from one place to another, but visits everywhere represent a breath of fresh air, a welcome break from confinement. When it is not possible to see each other, prisoners find other ways to maintain this link with the outside world.
Episode 6: Last Day
In the final installment of this series, the inmates contemplate their release, which for some is imminent. They take stock of what awaits them outside and how to prepare for it. Some are granted short-term leave, like a transition period before returning to life outside prison. For others, it is a sudden release without preparation.
A podcast from the Controller-General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty
Direction: Mari Goicoechea
Music and mix: Julien Menez
Studio recording: Noan Horeau-Muhl
Pictures: Karine Bizard
Illustration: Rosalie Stroesser
