The Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden has just announced the creation of a specialized commission which will have to look at the problem of prison overcrowding in Belgium.
A specialized commission has been set up to look at the problem of prison overcrowding, announced on Monday in a statement the Minister of Justice, Annelies Verlinden. Composed of magistrates, lawyers, administration representatives and academic experts, it must eventually Develop a plan providing solutions to the current phenomenon and tracks to prevent it. The final report using concrete recommendations is expected for September 2028 at the latest.
All the chain links will be analyzed, from the investigation to the execution of the sentence, including the conviction. “We opt for a criminal policy facing the future. Not makeshift solutions, but structural reforms supported by scientific expertise and experience“, Comments the minister.
Among the independent members, will sit judges of the Court of Cassation, attorney generals, judges of instructions, professors in criminology and criminal law, and representatives of the SPF Justice.
An intermediate report is expected in the next 18 months.
The Minister recalls that The sentences must indeed be purged in order to be able to maintain confidence in the rule of law. But it’s not just sorrows. A person who commits a crime often needs to be accompanied. Without investment in prevention, teaching, health care and solidarity, we will continue to fight against symptoms instead of attacking us with real causes, “she concludes.
A strike began in Ghent prison
A staff strike started on Sunday evening at 10 p.m. at Ghent prison. This action had already been announced, as a sign of protest in the face of the absence of a conclusive proposal from the management to remedy the lack of staff as well as prison overcrowding.
The unions ask the management to present a new document “containing clear agreements which do not lend interpretation, in order to avoid any discussion,” said ACOD union representative (Flemish CGSP) Jef Tax on Monday morning. This document will have to reduce the staff workload. “Because in Ghent, we have long faced overcrowding. There are many prisoners and the lack of staff really weighs on people. »
Thirty inmates had to sleep on the ground Within the prison last week, due to a lack of beds. However, the strike has no connection with the fact that, in early August, a prisoner refused the arrival of an additional fellow prisoner in his cell, which had earned him a disciplinary sanction.
At the origin of the conflict is also a persistent dissatisfaction concerning theAssignment of prison personnel to monitoring missions in hospitalespecially in a hospital in Antwerp. These missions force employees to travel long distances at their own costs.
According to the prison administration, the situation is particularly complicated due to a very limited number of people willing to work. The management is therefore taking care of the distribution of meals with the help of the police.
