2023-09-26 11:33:00
Prison staff across the country have been on strike since this Sunday at 10 p.m., and for 48 hours, to denounce the “inhumane” detention and working conditions that reign there. A minimum service applies during, but the scale of the movement has led to the elimination of visits, activities, work for inmates and outings to the courtyard. The police had to intervene in prisons to ensure security.
Prison overcrowding, lack of staff and a Minister of Justice “who stubbornly” wants to apply short prison sentences at all costs, which risks worsening overpopulation, the observation made by the unions is clear.
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Historically, prison officers have not waited for the short sentences (less than 3 years) served in prison to come into effect. Their unease was already palpable well before this alarming new situation.
“On a daily basis, everything is oversized,” says Eric Manise, prison officer at Lantin prison, and president of the CSC union delegates for the Liège prison.
“In our operation, everything is regulated and timed. At the same time managing a courtyard of 100 inmates when there should only be 60 is a source of pressure. The same goes for the showers, there are four per level, an excessive number must pass there every day. There are more trips to bring detainees to the courthouse and then to bring them back. No more visitors, no more excavations, no more of everything in fact. Psychological cases are in normal cells due to lack of space in the psychiatric wings.”
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Verbal and even physical attacks, between prisoners or towards the person, are also more and more numerous: “It’s true. The crisis situations are there. For us, just because a day starts well doesn’t mean it won’t end badly. But you have to put yourself in their place. Cells of a few square meters for two people, where as a reminder, in theory, everyone must have their own cell, this influences behavior. One has to go to the bathroom while the other is eating.”
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Does a prison officer therefore live under permanent tension? “Not permanent. In the long run, you get used to the pressure, to eating on the go due to lack of time, to being refused leave. But with the massive arrival of people sentenced to short sentences, we are heading straight into the wall. It will be unmanageable. For us, for the detainees, the situation will become even more unbearable. The Minister of Justice has put the cart before the horse. It would have been necessary to build the fifteen promised detention centers (Editor’s note. Basically, supposed to accommodate minor sentences, places 600 places in total). But we are far from the mark.”
This Monday, Minister Van Quickenborne announced that there will be a new detention center in Antwerp. There are already two, in Kortrijk and Forest. Detention centers are also planned in Olen, Zelzate, Ninove and Genk.
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