Is it possible to reform the prison system ?

Sartre, Foucault and Deleuze all referred to prison as a humiliating place. Even those who think that prison is an appropriate solution have no wish to know what goes on behind bars. Those in charge of the penal system are treated as untouchables. To develop a system it is necessary to that those involved want to change it and in so doing, want to be respected, reassured and praised. It is not an easy thing to do when one takes into account the size of the system (200 establishments and 30,000 public employees), the overpopulation of prisons, the suffering and sometimes the violence which is a feature of life in prison. Furthermore, the period of office of the director of the Prison Service is often only two years which, on the face of it, is too short to set in stone any sort of reform. Nonetheless, Claude d'Harcourt has undertaken important changes by drawing on the European Prison Rules adopted by the Council of Europe in 2006.