A Prisoner Tour de France

Dozens of French prisoners and corrections officers are pedaling around the scenic countryside this week on the first-ever Tour de France for the country's prisoners. A public-private partnership, the 1,500-mile bike ride is intended to challenge 200 prisoners who participate to improve their lives through athletic activity and build the kind of determination it takes to create a successful life after release.

The riders' sentences range from two to 25 years, and the tour makes stops in 17 towns around the country, picking up and dropping off riders at each. From the AP:

“Invariably, when any prison administration does these things, people will say, ‘Hang on, why is this happening? Aren’t they in there to be punished?” said Andrew Coyle, a professor of prison studies at King’s College, London, who spent 25 years as an overseer in British penitentiaries. “One understands that point of view. But if we’re serious about helping prisoners to reenter and to reintegrate, then we need to find opportunities to give them positive experiences.”

French victims groups agree.

“At a certain moment, you have to consider these people, these individuals, these prisoners as people who might one day once again take up the path of society, of community life,” said Sabrina Bellucci, director of the French National Institute for Victims’ Aid and Mediation. “I believe victims understand that very, very well.”

The article goes on, however, to point out that the tour is a bright light during a dark time for French prisons.

Many of the country's institutions are more than 50 years old, the 63,000-inmate system is more than 20% over capacity and suicide among prisoners skyrocketed 20% to 115 in 2008. Even worse, that number is expected to grow again in 2009, with 50 suicides already this year. The prison suicide rate is twice that of the U.K. and much higher than the rate in the U.S.

Guards are also staging revolts at the country's overcrowded prisons and jails, and 10 French corrections officers have killed themselves this year alone.

The cause of France's overcrowded prisons? You guessed it: mandatory minimums.  It's the same around the world. Long sentences don't work. Treatment and paths to reintegration work. The Tour de France Penitentiaire is a good idea and a step in the right direction. But, like the U.S., France has a long way to go on real prison reform.