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France 24
France 24
National
FRANCE 24

Inmates in overcrowded French prison say heatwave makes conditions 'inhumane'

This photograph shows barbed wire on a wall of the Villepinte prison, in the northern suburb of Paris, on April 15, 2026.
FILE - The wall of the Villepinte prison, in the northern suburb of Paris on April 15, 2026. © Julien De Rosa, AFP

As a heatwave continued to rage in Paris Friday afternoon, French MP Clémentine Autain visited an overcrowded prison in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of the capital and witnessed conditions that inmates describe as “inhumane".

A damp towel hangs from a barred window, a fan churns the muggy air: Inmates at the overcrowded Villepinte prison outside Paris say enduring a heatwave that has stifled France in recent days in cramped cells is "inhumane".

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