Two detainees escaped from the historic but aging Dijon prison after sawing through the bars of their cell and climbing down with bedsheets in a dramatic overnight jailbreak, officials confirmed on Thursday, November 27.
It is the second such incident in France in less than two weeks, raising urgent questions about security in the country’s correctional facilities. Prison guards discovered the escape shortly before dawn as they conducted early morning rounds.
Although the prison service initially provided few details, Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch later confirmed that the fugitives appeared to have “sawn through bars” and “fled using bed sheets,” an improvised method more reminiscent of old-fashioned prison escapes than modern-day breakouts.
The escapees are a 19-year-old detainee awaiting trial for attempted murder linked to a drug dispute, and a 32-year-old man incarcerated since 2023 for domestic violence-related offences. Authorities have launched a manhunt across the region, but as of Thursday evening, the pair remained on the run.
Union representative Ahmed Saih, speaking on behalf of prison officers at the facility, said the inmates used “manual saw blades,” tools that had previously been discovered inside the jail during inspections.
He expressed deep frustration, noting repeated warnings to authorities about vulnerabilities. “We’ve been warning about the risk of a jail break for months,” Saih said, adding that staff urgently need more personnel and reinforced equipment, including “gratings that cannot be sawn through.”
Built in 1853, Dijon prison is one of France’s oldest correctional facilities and has long suffered from overcrowding and deteriorating conditions. According to the justice ministry, the jail houses 311 inmates despite being designed for only 180 — a situation that many experts say makes monitoring and security significantly more difficult.
An inmate released on Thursday after serving eight months described grim living conditions. “There were three of us in a cell: two on bunk beds and one sleeping on the floor,” he told AFP outside the prison gates, adding that “prison is very hard here.”
Last week, Interior and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that the Dijon facility had been allocated €6.3 million as part of a broader program aimed at reducing illicit mobile phone use across several French prisons. However, the announcement did little to ease concerns about the structural weaknesses highlighted by the latest escape.
The incident comes just 10 days after another escape drew national attention. In Rennes, a 37-year-old inmate, serving a sentence until early 2027 for theft-related offences, fled during a supervised group outing to a planetarium.
He was recaptured on Thursday in a traveller community camp in Nantes. The fallout from that escape was swift: Darmanin fired the director of Rennes prison amid public and political pressure. The recurrence of such incidents in such a short period has intensified debate about the state of France’s penitentiary system.
Critics point to chronic overcrowding, a lack of investment in security infrastructure, and understaffing as major contributors to recent failures. Union officials argue that without significant and rapid reforms, similar incidents may become increasingly common.
For now, authorities in Dijon are reviewing surveillance records, interviewing staff, and tightening security measures while the search continues for the fugitives. The prison break has heightened pressure on the Justice Ministry to address what many see as deep-rooted structural issues — with consequences that are becoming harder to ignore.