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This paper outlines the current features of the French incarceration policies and analyses how they are affected by the actuarial justice proposed by M. Feeley and J. Simon. There is an economisation trend manifest in prisoner release policies and privatisation of prison construction, operation and security. Actuarial justice philosophy is not truly being implemented due to the French prison policy of a return to retribution in sentencing and protection of society, it is used rather as further justification of the current system and in fact reinforces institutional choices while masking them. It asserts a functional logic not evident in the inflationary rhetoric of risk.