Unions representing Belgium's prison employees held two hours of talks on Wednesday with Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne and National Building Authority head Mathieu Michel.
The meeting came on the heels of a 48-hour strike that ended on Tuesday.
While the union representatives were pleased to have had a chance to discuss conditions at the country's prisons with the two officials, they seemed somewhat resigned.
“There is no miracle solution in the short term,” Grégory Wallez, general secretary of public service union CGSP Justice, commented after Wednesday’s meeting.
Prison staff denounce the inhumane detention and working conditions in prisons, with overcrowding and understaffing the biggest stumbling blocks.
Developments are planned between now and 2030 to increase the number of places available in prisons, particularly at Vresse-sur-Semois, Paifve and Lantin, but until then the unions see no solution. “We’re not going to push up prison walls to create extra cells,” Mr. Wallez quipped.
Managing short sentences was also a concern for staff representatives. “One inmate in prison has a cost that we can estimate at €60,000 a year," the CGST representative noted. "Why not provide for slightly stricter conditions of detention under electronic surveillance, with monitoring by a detention officer?”
Mr Van Quickenborne, for his part, proposes to house prisoners serving short sentences in detention centres, smaller-scale establishments, rather than conventional prisons. In addition, he is committed to creating 324 forensic psychiatric places, which should improve transiting from the existing centres.
While the meeting did not produce a short-term outcome, the CGSP said it was pleased to have been able to talk for so long with the minister. The union’s technical committee is now awaiting the minutes of the meeting to communicate with its rank and file on the way forward. The Justice Ministry and the unions have already agreed to meet again after the Autumn holidays.
The ministry's team said Wednesday afternoon's discussions had been constructive.
