For the first time since Flanders started using electronic tagging, some 1,700 people are currently under electronic surveillance – the equivalent of the population of three large prisons.
Last year, on an annual basis, a total of around 5,200 people were placed under an electronic tagging system, resulting in them being under 24/7 electronic surveillance, a 60% increase over the past six years. This rising use of the devices is driven by a federal policy to tackle the issue of prison overcrowding in the region and Belgium as a whole.
In light of these figures, the Flemish Justice Minister Zuhal Demir stressed that this system should be seen as a favour, not as a routine procedure, arguing that this system is not suitable to tackle this systemic issue, which has resulted in inmates sleeping on the ground.
"We want to give people new opportunities. We don't want to give them more chances to continue their criminal acts," Demir noted. She compared the extensive use of the system to the situation in the Netherlands, where around 2,000 fewer electronic tagging devices are being used.
Federal competence
As the regulation within which judges allow electronic surveillance is a federal competence, the Flemish region has no authority to intervene, Demir argued, which is why she called on Federal Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne to adjust the policy that sees anklets as a solution to prison overcrowding should be adjusted.
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Vincent Van Quickenborne's cabinet referred to changes that have already been made in the legislation to combat the overcrowding of prisons. In September last year, a rule came into place which ensures that short-term prison sentences between two and three years must be effectively executed.
A second phase coming into effect in September will ensure sentences of up to two years will also be executed. "This will lead to fewer ankle bracelets," it noted, adding that prison capacity is being expanded, with the new "mega-prison" in Haren, where conditions were reportedly deteriorating just weeks after it opened.
