Who's attacking France's prisons?

The Debate

Since Sunday night, France has seen attacks against prison gates, parking lots and even outside a prison guard's home. A hitherto unknown group has claimed responsibility over the social medium Telegram, but it’s still early days for investigators.

We ask whodunnit and about the context, with the right-wing French interior and justice ministers both talking up strongarm tactics to crack down on increasingly violent and emboldened drug gangs, who last year shocked France with the deadly ambush on a prison convoy that enabled the getaway of the since recaptured kingpin known as "The Fly".

So what to make of plans for two French super-prisons for narcos, calls for stiffer sentences for small-time pushers … and even one politician’s call for a US-style Guantanamo in France's North American dependency of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon? Remember, France has some of the most overcrowded prisons in Europe.

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Alessandro Xenos.