By Luna-Marie Noyelle, YoCoJoin reporter
For years now, residents and visitors to Caputsteenpark in Mechelen have experienced nuisances from the local prison, situated adjacent to the park. Experts say the problems are caused by overcrowding, staff shortages and the almost inhumane living conditions in the prison. Those challenges are not unique to Mechelen, but they are reflective of broader issues in the Belgian prison system.
Mechelen city council appears to have made a strange decision in Mechelen. In 2016, it constructed a children’s play park in the Caputsteenstraat, next to the walls of the old prison in the city centre.
Since then, both the prison director and the police have received regular complaints about the behaviour of the prisoners, who look out onto the park through their cell windows and harass visitors to the park with inappropriate comments. During the COVID pandemic, when prison visits were cancelled, park users and residents saw prisoners holding conversations across the wall. Nowadays, too, there are complaints about noise at night, about women being catcalled and strangers throwing packages – including drugs – over the wall.
A litany of frustrations
Despite efforts by the prison board and the city council in recent years, the “tossing over the wall” issue has not gone away. Installing security nets is not an option, since the old walls can’t take the weight. One solution is to build a structure to support the net, but this might obstruct the prisoners during their exercise in the yard.
The result is that for years now, drugs and other contraband have been smuggled into the prison by way of the old walls. Resident Ann Deneyer has lived in the Caputsteenstraat for 28 years. Her garden is adjacent to the prison walls. “Now and then, the packages land in the nearby gardens,” she says. “Sometimes, strangers walk across the roofs of the houses, searching for their packages. Our neighbour recently found a tennis ball filled with drugs in his garden.”
The shouting of inmates also keeps Deneyer awake at night. “I regularly see people standing next to their car in the car park, shouting to make contact with the prisoners.” The issue has been put to the prison board on several occasions, but they prefer not to respond.
Tolerance, too
A survey of the park users shows a mixture of frustration and tolerance. Sveta, who would rather not reveal her surname, lives nearby and visits the park regularly with her children. ‘They sometimes ask me why people are shouting like that, why they’re angry with each other,” she tells us.
Sanne Callaerts is also a regular visitor to the Caputsteenpark. “You sometimes see inmates’ arms sticking out of the windows, as though they want to get out. That does give you a strange feeling,” she says, “but I don’t feel unsafe here.”
Raf Rens lives nearby and often visits the park with his two little boys. “We were aware of this when we moved here,” he says. “It’s a bit like living near the airport: you know that there are certain consequences attached.”
His older son finds the prisoners’ calls disturbing. Rens: “We’re sometimes woken up by the inmates shouting. It happens more often when the weather is warmer. It must be uncomfortable for them too, confined in the heat.”
A conscious decision
“Neighbourhood residents wanted a green space and play area,” says Abdrahman Labsir (Open VLD), the Mechelen municipal councillor responsible for prevention and community. “The Caputsteen site offered enough space for that.” Labsir defends the siting of the park, citing its heavy daily use.
The location was also a conscious decision for other councillors. They include Patrick Princen (Green Party), whose portfolio includes green spaces such as parks and city gardens. “This way, we provide more greenery for the neighbourhood, and also more tolerance for the prison,” he says.
According to Princen, the park also offers a form of social control, because local residents and park visitors are constantly present, keeping an eye on things. Since the park is situated close to the prison walls, residents and park visitors are quicker to notice unusual situations, such as suspicious activities or attempts to communicate with the inmates.
“During the [park’s] construction, we took into account the safety of both park visitors and prisoners. We took care not to place trees and play structures too close to the prison walls, to prevent damage to the walls or possible escape routes,” Princen tells us. “The intention is to expand the park in the future.” According to Labsir, the prison board is working on moving particularly noisy prisoners and is considering introducing a reward system.
Sleeping on the floor
Mechelen Prison is in the city centre and was built in 1874. Officially, it’s a pre-trial detention centre with a closed regime, meant only for detainees with a medium-duration stay of up to ten years.
“The boundaries between all these penitential institutions are becoming more and more blurred,” says Eddy De Smedt, a former prison guard and the secretary general of the VSOA public-sector trade union [responsible for prisons at the federal level – ed.]. “That’s because our prisons are overpopulated. Today, there are many detainees in prisons where they don’t belong, and where there is no longer enough room either. For example, Mechelen Prison normally has a capacity of 84 men. Today, there are 154 prisoners there. Of those, at least ten are sleeping on a mattress on the floor between the two beds.”
In a standard two-person cell, there is one square metre between the table and the bunk beds. With a third person, an extra mattress is laid in that space. They can only lie on their bed if their cellmates lie on their beds.
“The third prisoner can’t eat at the table either, since it’s only big enough to put two trays on. The only option is to eat sitting on the bed, or sometimes on the open toilet,” says Yo Haeleydt. She is a volunteer for and Chair of Mechelen Beschermcomité, an organisation that advocates a more humane prison system. “The combination of cramped and inhumane conditions, differing personalities, boredom and drug use leads to tension and frustrations, both among prisoners and towards prison staff.”
Too few prison officers
The staff shortages in Mechelen Prison are also acute. The 2023 Annual Report of the Mechelen Review Commission shows that there has been scarcely any improvement in the issue in the last two years. “Often, there are only four prison officers to manage the exercise, visits and doctor’s appointments of 153 prisoners,” according to De Smedt of VSOA. “All too often, two prison officers call in sick, leaving only two to monitor the three wings of the prison.”
This undermines the safety of both inmates and prison officers, and also makes it hard to provide prisoners with activities and purposeful ways of spending their days. When prisoners have nothing to do and cells are overcrowded, fights can ensue.
According to De Smedt, boredom is the root cause of the nuisance the prisoners cause. Could a reorientation and reward system be a part of the solution? De Smedt doubts that. The priority now is to resolve the staff shortages. Reorientation and rewarding is certainly not a bad idea, but what we need right now is an ad-hoc approach to the nuisance: intervening at the moment it happens. And for that, there are too few staff members.”
Mechelen Prison is not the only one dealing with overpopulation and staff shortages. It’s a problem in almost all Belgian prisons. The high occupancy rate and the limited resources mean that the inmates are often living in inhumane conditions, with too few beds, minimal room for exercise and little access to activities. European courts have condemned Belgium multiple times for human rights violations due to inadequate conditions of detention.
Imprisoned, but also human
It is a noble initiative to construct a park next to a prison to create more understanding and tolerance among residents. However, such efforts amount to window dressing. It is often a challenge for ex-prisoners to adjust to society after they’ve completed their sentence, particularly when they have lived outside that society for many years. According to experts, difficulties of reintegration are related to the conditions inside the prison walls.
Offering inmates practical support and human contact, as Yo Haeleydt does, is essential if reintegration is to be successful, according to Tom Vander Beken, professor of criminology and criminal law at Ghent University and director of the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP). “We know that prison sentences damage people and make them more susceptible to criminality than steering people away from criminal activities.”
Haeleydt organises wellbeing workshops at Mechelen Prison. “They give inmates the chance, during their exercise time, to get to know what we do and how we can help them,” she says. “The majority of the prisoners here have not been convicted. The Beschermcomité provides practical things like clothing, reading glasses, pen and paper… Even a simple calendar is important to detainees. It enables them to keep track of the days and make modest plans. That gives something to look forward to.”
Haeleydt goes on: “We also organise games evenings, take time to listen, and we visit those who otherwise never get visitors. We know nothing about their case and just give them the feeling that they’re worth our time. A prisoner is more than simply the crimes he has committed. He is also a person, a son, a dad, and so on.”
Haeleydt regularly collects prisoners’ children for visits to their dads. The Beschermcomité also organises regular children’s afternoons, when the otherwise impersonal visitor area is transformed into a place for play and handicrafts. It’s a way of strengthening the bond between father and child. “Prospects are really important for the prisoner, but also for the family,” says Haeyleydt.
“In the political debate in recent years, many have proposed abolishing early release. But how are we going to encourage people to do better in the future if we do that?” asks Yo Haeleydt. Her plea is in no way meant to minimise the suffering of the victims. “Naturally, it’s terrible for the victims. I have lain awake many nights because of the crimes some of these people have committed.”
People around her sometimes ask her why she invests her time in prisoners. “It has changed the way I look at people, and I’ve become milder. Of course, we must commit one hundred per cent to the victims, but also to the prisoners, because they too will at some point be a part of society again.”
A social purpose
Professor Vander Beken has visited several European prisons in recent years. The situation in Mechelen, with the Caputsteenpark next to the prison, reminds him of one he visited in Trøgstad, in Norway. “It was right next to a school. That might seem strange to us, but they had a different view of things. ‘A prison is an institution like any other’, said the guide who showed me around. It has a social purpose there, which they’re proud of. In Belgium, we regard the prison as a parallel world, one we prefer to have as little contact with as possible.”
There are big differences between prisons in Europe. In France, the prison officers have an almost military function, aimed at suppressing violence. In the Netherlands and Scandinavia, on the other hand, prison officers don’t wear uniforms, and the difference between them and the inmates is barely visible.
The Belgian approach is somewhere between the two. Technology plays a growing role in the Belgian prison system. This may mean that prison officers don’t need to be so physically present, since they can supervise the exercise yard from the control room by means of cameras.
“That creates a kind of big brother system, which has pros and cons,” says Vander Beken. “On the one hand, it gives personnel more safety, but on the other, contact with prisoners becomes more impersonal.” However, he believes that the role of the prison officer is crucial. “They don’t only supervise inmates, they are, above al,l a human presence during someone’s sentence.”
The Belgian prison system aims to evolve towards a warmer and more humane policy. That is important, says Vander Beken, because international research shows that the moment when people turn their back on criminality [known as desistance from crime – ed.] is related to tipping points in life and social anchoring – for instance, ageing and so gaining insights, having a partner, becoming a parent, an so on. That is why initiatives that offer prospects, such as the Beschermcomité in Mechelen, are so important.
The same inside as outside
“In an ideal situation, life in prison would resemble as much as possible life outside the prison walls,” says Vander Beken. “As of today, prisoners are completely disconnected from society. Their social security lapses, their work is not officially recognised, and they are deregistered from their home address. Detention centres are a better alternative. They’re often in the city and ensure that inmates stay connected to society.”
Yo Haeleydt agrees. She advocates for more structure and meaningful activities during detention. “I often think: those men are all healthy and they’re just sitting there doing nothing. Make use of that situation.” In her view, working as a detainee would not only give them a goal and prospects, but it would also ease the transition to normal life. Tom Vander Beken shares that view: “Society has the right to punish someone after that person has harmed victims and society, but the deprivation of liberty should in itself form the punishment.”
Elsewhere, no better
The issues of overpopulation, outdated infrastructure and staff shortages are not unique to Mechelen. Prisons in Haren, Dendermonde and Sint-Gillis are facing the same problems, although the consequences differ from one prison to another.
Haren
Haren Prison has been in use since 2022 and acts as a prison campus, with places for 1,035 prisoners. That makes it the largest prison in our country. Unlike most of the older prisons in Flanders, this one is located outside the city centre, in an industrial area. And that leads to a new set of problems. “An open area provides more scope for inventiveness,” says Eddy De Smedt, the trade-union official. “Just recently, a catapult was used to get items over the prison walls. The location is not ideal for staff either: some can’t find a way to get to work, or take longer to do so, because the prison is not easily accessible by public transport.”
Dendermonde
Dendermonde Prison also has unique surroundings: the car park of a Colruyt supermarket. As in Mechelen, inmates have catcalled Dendermonde residents and supermarket customers in the car park. In August 2006, 28 prisoners even managed to prize open the old locks, climb over the walls and escape. “By contrast, Mechelen Prison has a pretty sound infrastructure,” says De Smedt.
Sint-Gillis
In the Brussels region, prison staff are paid bonuses which are increased annually. The measure was designed to combat staff shortages, attract new employees and retain existing staff. For years, this prison has faced hygiene issues, health problems among prisoners, and drug use. Although Sint–Gillis was scheduled to close at the end of 2024, an agreement was reached in December 2024 to keep the old prison building open until the end of 2025. The cause was the general overpopulation in Belgian prisons.
Disclaimer:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Media Diversity Institute Global. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This article was originally published on StampMedia and is also available via the following link: Hard hart: wat zegt de situatie in de gevangenis van Mechelen over het Belgische detentiebeleid?. The content is republished here with appropriate credit to the original source.
