North of Brussels, the new Haren prison is due to open at the end of September. A modern prison, with different prison regimes and a specific organization, far from the traditional visions of “old” prisons. This weekend, 55 volunteer magistrates were locked up to experience the lives of the future 1,200 prisoners who will be detained in the establishment.
A journalist from RTL info, Arnaud Gabriel, complied with the same conditions as these magistrates.
36 hours in the cell, what do you remember?
“It was very interesting, but also stressful and difficult. The hardest thing is necessarily the confinement. On Saturday, I spent 12 hours out of 15 in my cell. It’s very simple: you take 7 steps in before, you come up once morest the door. You take 7 steps back and you come up once morest the bed, near the window. And you do this for hours, because there is not much else to do. I read, I listened to the radio, it’s what connects you to the outside.
The sound of prison officers’ shoes on the stairs
And then there are the noises. The constant blower that stays in the head. The fridge that gets started. Doors opening, prison officers’ shoes on the stairs.
Finally, very quickly, you realize that ultimately, all you can do is because someone decides that you can do it, and it will happen when they decide. And that is quite challenging, just like the stress of missing something in the timing, like missing the coffee which is served between 6:45 and 6:55, or the ‘courtyard outings’ which allow you to get some fresh air.
This Sunday evening, I am exhausted”.
What do the magistrates think?
“I’m happy to be outside“, told us Damien Vandermeersch, magistrate and professor of criminal law at UCLouvain. “Now, it’s different from the real prisoners, because when I got back, I knew that I would be out the next day. And my wife and my children, I did not ask myself the question, they will always be there when I return. And I didn’t lose my job. So yes, prison is tough, it’s heavy“.
