Vooruit.brussels has unveiled plans to transform Saint-Gilles and Forest prisons in Brussels into a an "open urban district" where local residents can enjoy art, sport, education and accommodation opportunities.
Saint-Gilles prison is billed to close by the end of the year, with conditions inside the prison having been branded "catastrophic" due to overcrowding and staff shortages.
Dutch-speaking socialists Vooruit.Brussels want to move quickly to transform the vacated space into a lively community hub. With a size of 6.5 hectares (almost ten football pitches), the party believes that pre-existing infrastructure is ideal for its 'Quartier ConneXion' project.
Vooruit's vision involves "a place where the people of Brussels can come together to create and relax, and then to live and study [...] Forest prison has already been emptied of its inmates, and Saint-Gilles will soon follow. There is no time to lose. The site needs to find a new function as soon as possible."
Creativity and activity
This urgency aims to prevent the grounds from becoming vacant, like so many other properties in Brussels. A study published by investigative newspaper Apache in November last year showed that there is over 1.2 million m² of undeveloped public land and vacant buildings in the capital city.
Vooruit is keen to cater to artists' needs by providing studio space. The layout of the prison building is "ideal" for this use, they say, and they also intend to install in the former Forest prison a concert hall, an open-air theatre, and spaces where street artists will be able to create art. All in all, Quartier ConneXion will serve as the "ideal location to show artistic work to the general public and to organise performances and exhibitions."
Sports-wise, there will be multiple indoor and outdoor opportunities, such as dancing, skating, climbing, basketball, volleyball and jogging. The outdoor activities will take place in the park area envisioned which will entail ample green spaces, a city farm with vegetable plots, sheep and chickens, and a wild pond.
Saint-Gilles prison. Credit: CSC Public Service Union
Aside from activities open to the general public, Vooruit wants to utilise the space for long-term residence opportunities too. "The site is not only an excellent play and sports area, it can also become the home of young people and youth movements from the neighborhood, so that they finally have their own premises and a new youth centre."
The party hopes to implement a housing scheme that offers priority to people working in essential roles, such as nurses, firefighters and teachers. Accommodation will be accompanied by nurseries, schools and an educational campus.
Where will the prisoners go?
There will be an effort to reintegrate prisoners serving short-term sentences (up to three years) housed in the nearby Berkendael detention centre. These individuals will be "actively involved" in the farm, education opportunities, art and sport activities. Vooruit is also looking into creating a second detention centre housing up to 50 people on the site.
Saint-Gilles is a symptom of Belgium's prison system creaking under a swathe of problems including overcrowding and chronic staff shortages.
The facility in Haren is supposed to replace Saint-Gilles prison, to protect prisoners from dangers that occur by housing them in a prison with insufficient staff numbers, as is the case in Saint-Gilles. Haren prison opened in 2022 in a bid to resolve these issues but has thus far come under fire for its own set of bad living conditions and extreme inefficiency.
Belgium's prisons have one of the highest rates of overcrowding in Europe. Staff are almost constantly on strike in protest of inhumane conditions suffered by both inmates and employees.
