The Antwerp Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the alleged rape of a female social worker by a prisoner.
The woman tried to alert security via an emergency button but it did not work. It took more than one minute for prison guards to realise what was happening and intervene. The Public Prosecutor has not released any more information about the incident.
The Prison Service will now conduct a screening of all security systems across the institution. It has also called on the Federal Government to resolve the crisis occurring in all prisons across the country: chronic overcrowding and staff shortages.
'A real solution'
"We have drawn up a memorandum, not specifically in response to these facts, in which we call on the next Federal Government to set quotas for prisons, so that no more prisoners end up in a prison than the capacity of the building can handle," spokesperson Kathleen Van de Vijver told Belga News Agency.
"More capacity is needed, and for that, considerably more resources must be made available. Only in this way can a real solution be found for the structural problems with which staff are struggling."
Credit: Belga
In an annual report published by the Central Council of Prison Monitoring (CCSP) on Monday, the body warned that Belgium lacks 200 prison staff and therefore fails to meet legal requirements. In addition, the number of prisoners in Belgium has reached an all-time high, peaking at 12,399 detained individuals in March 2024.
In the same month, a 41-year-old prisoner in Antwerp was tortured, raped and abused for days by other inmates when six were placed in a cell designed to sleep three people. The abuse was reported on three separate occasions before official intervention and unions said "the gruesome scene" was a "direct consequence of overcrowding and understaffing."
Following the launch of the rape investigation on Tuesday, trade unions have reiterated calls for better facilities. "The meeting room must be a safe place," ACOD Secretary Robby De Kaey told Belga News Agency.
"During a recent meeting, it became clear that a number of those alarm buttons did not appear to work. [...] People have long felt that they were safe by pressing a button, [but] that is not the case."
