French Prisoners Escape Using Sawn Bars and Bed Sheets Amid National Prison Overcrowding Crisis

Dijon prison, constructed in 1853, is severely overcrowded with 311 inmates occupying space designed for only 180 people.

Two inmates managed to escape from a French prison by sawing through the cell bars and using bed sheets to flee, according to a prosecutor's statement on Thursday.

France struggles with some of Europe's worst prison overcrowding issues, and staff unions have voiced concerns that the government is neglecting standard detention facilities while focusing resources on new maximum-security prisons for drug criminals.

Prison guards discovered the absence of the two men shortly before dawn at the detention facility in Dijon, eastern France, as reported by prison authorities.

Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch confirmed that the escapees "appear to have sawn through bars" and "escaped using bed sheets," though he provided no additional details about their exact method of utilizing the bedding.

The escaped prisoners include a 19-year-old being held in pre-trial detention since October 2024 for attempted murder charges and a 32-year-old incarcerated since 2023 for threatening and violent behavior toward a partner.

Ahmed Saih, a union representative for prison officers at the facility, revealed that the inmates employed "old-fashioned, manual saw blades" to execute their escape.

"We've been warning about the risk of a jail break for months," Saih stated, referencing previous incidents where saw blades were discovered inside the prison.

He called for increased staffing levels and improved security equipment, specifically requesting "gratings that cannot be sawn through."

The overcrowded conditions at Dijon prison are severe. One inmate released Thursday after serving eight months told AFP about the challenging environment: "Prison is very hard here. There were three of us in a cell: two on bunk beds and one sleeping on the floor."

This prison break comes less than two weeks after another escape in Rennes, northwestern France. A 37-year-old convict with over a year remaining on his sentence for theft fled during a supervised outing to the city's planetarium on November 14. He was apprehended Thursday in a traveler community camp near Nantes, according to sources close to the investigation.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin responded to that incident by dismissing the prison's director.

Three prison directors' unions recently criticized the right-wing minister, who is implementing a plan to house the most dangerous drug traffickers in maximum-security facilities. They accused him of "devoting all the resources of a debt-ridden state" to high-security prisons for drug trafficking and terrorism suspects while neglecting the "vast majority" of other detention facilities.

"While the justice minister parades around in overfunded facilities, other (prison) services are suffering," the unions declared in a joint statement.

Darmanin recently announced that the Dijon facility would receive 6.3 million euros ($7.3 million) as part of an initiative to eliminate mobile phones from six French prisons.

France ranks third worst in Europe for prison overcrowding, behind only Slovenia and Cyprus, according to a Council of Europe report published in July. The national average in early October showed 135 inmates per 100 available places, while Dijon's rate is significantly worse at almost 173 inmates for every 100 beds.

In a related development, notorious French drug baron Mohamed Amra, known as "The Fly," was transferred to a new maximum-security prison in northern France in July. Amra gained international notoriety when he escaped in May 2024 after armed assailants ambushed his prison transport vehicle, resulting in the deaths of two prison guards. Following an extensive multinational manhunt lasting several months, he was captured in Romania and extradited to France.