To Treat, Punish, or Manage the Caseload? Drug-Using Offenders and French Criminal Justice Policy

Although France’s drug laws are among the harshest in Europe, there are a multitude of options open to prosecutors and judges that are designed to keep drugusing offenders out of prison. As caseloads have grown, however, prosecutors’ and judges’ choices between incarceration and alternative measures that may or may not have a treatment or educational component is more heavily influenced by case management concerns. Based on a representative sample of case files and one hundred semi-structured interviews with personnel working in six French courts, this article analyzes prosecutorial and judicial practice in the face of contradictory policies and law reforms.