This week a total 139 prisoners have been told that they will be released from prison earlier than they had expected. In an effort to address overcrowding in Belgian prisons more prisoners are being allowed to take what is known as “extended prison leave”. However, the measure will not serve to structurally reduce the pressure on the Belgian prison system.
Almost 140 prisoners released early this week in an effort to address prison overcrowding.
Published:
There are serious issues with overcrowding in Belgian prisons. Currently, there are more than 1,300 prisoners more than the country’s jails have capacity for and this figure is increasing every month. Friday’s edition of the daily ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ reports that in an effort to reduce pressure on the prisons the Prisons’ Directorate has decided to extend the system of “extended prison leave” (VPV). Under the VPV system prisoners with less than 6 months of their sentence to serve are allowed to leave prison.
In order to be considered for VPV most prisoners will have had to have already been granted several days prison leave in the past. If this had gone well then extended prison leave was granted and they were able to leave prison early.
Under the new rules that came into force this week prisoners no longer have to have completed a period of short-term prison leave in the past in order to be considered for extended prison leave. The measure doesn’t apply to serious criminals of sex offenders. Prisoners that have no fixed abode will also not be released. The prisoners that are released have their extended prison leave reviewed every month.
Almost 600 prisoners
There are currently 594 prisoners on extended prison leave. The prison service hopes that in the first instance widening the group that is eligible for extended prison leave will serve to reduce the number of prisoners that are forced to sleep on the floor as there is no bed available for them. On Thursday there were 125 prisoners sleeping on the floor in Belgian jails.
Although the system does go some way to relieving the pressure on our prison system, it doesn’t offer a structural solution to the issue of overcrowding in Belgium’s jails. Of the 139 places vacated this week, 64 have already been taken by new inmates.