Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) announced several measures to tackle the escalating violence against prison guards and staff.
Following a meeting with the joint trade union front, which had staged a protest earlier on Friday at the Justice department in the Financietoren, Verlinden detailed a series of initiatives aimed at curbing violence.
Key measures include acquiring equipment to conduct targeted searches for mobile phones within prisons and training IT specialist dogs to detect them.
Prisoners use mobile phones to orchestrate drug violence and attacks on the personal lives of guards and prison staff.
“Too often, drug criminals continue their activities from within prison walls, putting pressure and threatening inmates and staff to collaborate in their criminal activities. These threats extend to their private lives,” explained the minister. Additionally, Justice will procure equipment to jam or block mobile phone signals in prisons.
Verlinden plans to increase security in detention facilities, including the provision of secure cells for the most aggressive inmates, with the number of such cells expanding annually.
The ‘drone-in-a-box’ project, being tested at Antwerp prison, will be extended to other facilities to enhance security around prison boundaries using drones.
Safety for personnel outside prison walls will also be addressed by making identification badges less traceable, thus protecting personal information.
Verlinden emphasised the need to act quickly on some justified concerns raised by the unions while continuing discussions within the government. The unions had demanded immediate, impactful actions during their Friday morning protest at the Justice department.
Verlinden acknowledged that the overcrowding in Belgian prisons hinders humane detention policies, affecting both staff and inmates and contributing to frustration and violent incidents.
