Prisons in Belgium have for years now been among the most overcrowded in Europe. Earlier this month, the growing issue combined with staff shortages partly led to the torturing of an inmate over several days.
Despite rising capacity, Belgian prisons were nearly 15% overcrowded at the start of this month, data from the Ministry of Justice showed, with 12,316 inmates occupying 10,743 places. However, this was a slight decrease from the 17% rate registered in March last year, and this figure has since further decreased to 12.35%, the Directorate-General of Penitentiary Institutions (DG EPI) reported.
There are currently 12,070 inmates for 10,743 places in Belgium's 36 prisons. This overcrowding is a result of factors such as an increase in the duration of provisional detention, the introduction of short sentences, and a higher number of committals. However, the Directorate-General stated that it is now implementing concrete measures to tackle the issue.
Gruesome scene spurred measures
The DG EPI is working on the outflow with measures such as extended penitentiary leave to reduce pressure on prisons and eliminate 'ground sleepers' (due to the chronic overcrowding, hundreds of prisoners were left sleeping on the floor of overcrowded cells). More than 214 inmates have received this penitentiary leave since the measure began on 13 March, the DG EPI told Belga News Agency.
Regarding the inflow, consultations with the police, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the courts are ongoing. The Ministry works with its partners and consults with them to ensure that the intake of new detainees is as smooth as possible. It is not up to the Justice Ministry to decide who enters the prison, however.
The issue of prison overcrowding shot up to the top of the political agenda last week after the Antwerp Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed that an inmate from Antwerp Prison was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being abused by fellow detainees. The perpetrators, his fellow cellmates, had reportedly been torturing him for at least three, possibly four days.
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In response, the joint union front of prison guards stressed that the fact the torture was able to go on for so long was a direct consequence of overcrowding and understaffing. This was visible in the cell where the incident took place: it was designed for three people but contained six men. The horrific incident led to emergency measures being taken.
The DG EPI figures showed that in this prison, 94 people have left and 47 entered in the past week. These include three short-term convicts and six long-term convicts who were incarcerated. In addition, 11 convicts received a sentence break, and 17 were placed under electronic monitoring. Another ten defendants were detained pending trial.
