Pre-trial detention in Côte d'Ivoire is the subject of debate. When it becomes unjustified and systematic, leading to overcrowding and degrading treatment, it becomes intolerable. Penal reforms have been undertaken, but they have not succeeded in curbing the situation. What's more, they reveal the difficulties involved in thinking through changes to the prison and justice systems. Our focus on the tension between the lack of understanding of procedures by those primarily concerned, and the logics of standardization, nonetheless allows us to sketch out a methodological approach to the dynamics of confinement and the state. This book is the result of a desire to cross perspectives. It examines the reform processes at work in Côte d'Ivoire and other countries in the sub-Saharan region, to reveal the "unthought" behind the internationalization of penal reform in this region.