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The phenomenon of transinstitutionalization of mental patients from hospital to prison, although not new, is nonetheless worrisome.Since the 1950s, the Château-Thierry prison has occupied a unique place in the penitentiary world, hosting prisoners unsuitable for ordinary detention and concentrating a large number who are mentally ill.Two clinical vignettes illustrate this reality of the incarceration of the mentally ill, additionally raising the issue of criminal responsibility and psychiatric evaluation, through a review of the history of the treatment of crime and mental illness in our societies.