Latest update: 07/08/2009 

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French prisons see 'one suicide every three days'
French prisons see 'one suicide every three days'
The Paris-based International Prison Observatory has voiced alarm over suicide rates in French jails, which have been previously criticised for their poor conditions. The rights group says 88 prisoners have killed themselves so far this year.
By News Wires (text)

AFP - French prisons, criticised at home and abroad for overcrowding and generally poor conditions, have seen an inmate suicide every three days so far this year, a rights group said Thursday.

Authorities declined to provide official figures, but the International Prison Observatory said 88 prisoners have killed themselves this year.

"On August 1 we reached a level that we haven't reached since 1997," Francois Bes of the Observatory told AFP. "We are in a really worrying situation."

Official figures show that 115 inmates took their own lives in 2008 and 96 did so in 2007.

The Council of Europe rights watchdog has repeatedly slammed French prisons as overcrowded and dilapidated.

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