Maisons d’arrêt, centres de détention, maisons centrales
A maison d’arrêt is the remand and short-sentence local jail — La Santé in Paris, Fleury-Mérogis in Essonne, Les Baumettes in Marseille. Centres de détention and maisons centrales hold longer sentences. Mixing those labels in a search is how people book a visit to the wrong gate in the same city.
Permits (permis de visite) are requested through the prison or, for remand, the investigating judge. The first visit is paperwork, not a walk-up. Money goes on the canteen account via the official channels, not a personal transfer to a cellmate.
Independent eyes, not a public roster
The Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté (CGLPL) inspects French prisons and publishes thematic reports. Those reports are about conditions, not who is inside. We use them as background for facility context and still send families to the ministry pages for anything operational.
How France is carved up on this site
France is a separate country folder — not a tab on a mixed European roster, and not a US state code. The analogue of a US state here is the first-level unit: Régions. Metropolitan France is 13 régions on this site (Corsica included; overseas collectivités are not this hub). Île-de-France is not a synonym for every Paris court. Hauts-de-France is not Belgium. Grand Est is not Baden-Württemberg. Each région has its own URL and its own houses. Open a région page when you already know the slice of France; stay on this hub when you need the national rules, the official locator, and the list of those units.
The DAP runs maisons d’arrêt (remand and short sentences), centres de détention and maisons centrales. Fleury-Mérogis, Fresnes, La Santé, Les Baumettes, Lyon-Corbas and Loos-lès-Lille are different gates. GENESIS is internal. The CGLPL writes about conditions, not names. Facility articles under /france/ are building guides (address, operator, how a visit is booked). They are not who-is-inside tables. If a région has few prison guides, that is coverage on this site, not an empty prison system. Assuming a Paris tribunal keeps someone at La Santé. Most Île-de-France catch sits at Fleury or Fresnes. Belgian or Spanish visiting forms do not open a French gate.
Finding someone held in France
France does not publish a Google-style inmate spreadsheet. Ministère de la Justice — prison visitor information is the named official route (www.justice.gouv.fr/proche-personne-detenue). There is no public French inmate search. The lawyer, the greffe and justice.gouv.fr family pages are the route. A prévenu often needs the juge d’instruction before any parloir. A condamné’s permis de visite is établissement-specific. French law does not authorise a commercial inmate database. Conviction-data scraping has been restricted by European case law. Confirm visiting hours and permit rules with the établissement or the official justice.gouv.fr pages before you travel.
A US reader used to sheriff websites will type “France inmate search” and find nothing of the kind. That is the law. Court lists, Facebook groups and paid “worldwide jail” products are not Ministère de la Justice — prison visitor information. If the person was remanded overnight, reception can lag; if they were transferred out of the région you had in mind, the old desk is the wrong door. Use the région pages below to stop treating Paris as a synonym for the whole country.
Visits, money and staying in touch
Visiting in France is not a US-style walk-up. Permis de visite first, then the house notice for hours. Phones stay out of the parloir. Money goes on the canteen via official channels. Do not copy a Fleury timetable onto Marseille or Rennes. Where a facility guide on this site quotes hours, they were taken from that establishment’s official page — re-check the day before you travel. This country hub will not invent a national timetable.
Dress codes, dog searches and what you may carry are house rules. Money and remote contact, where they exist, go through the official national channel — not a personal transfer to a cellmate. CDG, Orly, Lyon Part-Dieu, Marseille Provence and Lille Europe are not parloirs. Fleury is an Essonne RER-and-bus morning. Baumettes is a Marseille city problem. Eurostar into Lille still leaves a western métropole trip to Loos.
Travel, borders and the wrong-gate problem
CDG, Orly, Lyon Part-Dieu, Marseille Provence and Lille Europe are not parloirs. Fleury is an Essonne RER-and-bus morning. Baumettes is a Marseille city problem. Eurostar into Lille still leaves a western métropole trip to Loos. Print the gate address from the official prison page, not from a maps pin that only names Paris or “French prison”. Neighbouring countries on this site have their own URLs; a cheaper flight into the next capital is not a visiting permit.
Assuming a Paris tribunal keeps someone at La Santé. Most Île-de-France catch sits at Fleury or Fresnes. Belgian or Spanish visiting forms do not open a French gate. If you only know a town name, match it to a région first, then to a facility guide. Confusing one région of France with another is the most common way to book the wrong visit.
Régions of France — each on its own URL
France is not mixed with the United States or with other European countries. Below is this country’s own first-level map (Régions). Open a unit for a longer article on how custody, visits and travel actually work there. US readers looking for a county inmate spreadsheet will not find one: France does not publish that, and neither do we.