2023-08-30 12:37:00
The growing overcrowding in prisons is having a negative impact on the well-being of prison guards who have been waiting for years for reinforcements. “The recruits are arriving but much too slowly while the number of prisoners continues to increase,” criticizes Christophe Wachel, guard at the Mons prison for 20 years and CSC delegate.
“The situation of prisons in Belgium is extremely catastrophic. However, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are not the only plagues”
As a result, attacks once morest them are increasing and many prison officers fear for their lives when they go to work. “The cells are nine square meters. In the 1970s, there was one inmate per cell, but then the sentences started to get heavier, the courts tougher, and overcrowding got worse. From now on, we sometimes find three detainees in a cell with only one toilet, not to mention the state of unsanitary conditions and the smell that emanates from it given that the ventilation of the cells is sometimes non-existent”, details he.
The Mons prison is one of the most overcrowded in the country and the daily management is catastrophic. “We are coming to a breaking point. When a detainee is alone in his cell, he lives his detention in a generally calm way and that does not pose a problem, but when they find themselves in twos or threes, sometimes there are fights and the agents must then intervene. Then you have to find transfer solutions, but you can’t put a prisoner with anyone. This impacts our workload in terms of opening doors, distributing meals, searching cells, which takes a crazy amount of time. The agent serves as a buffer between the various external services, the management, the psychosocial service and unfortunately, things often go into a spin,” he laments.
There are 163 detainees “on the ground” in Belgian prisons, forced to sleep on a mattress on the ground
At the time, a prison officer had to manage a wing of 25 prisoners, but today the number of prisoners has almost doubled. “So it’s a double workload with twice as many showers to give, meals, problems to solve. Ten years ago, prisoners were more understanding, but now they feel they have rights but no duties. We are no longer respected in the workplace and our well-being is completely undermined. Proof of this situation, we have to eat our lunch while working in unacceptable conditions for a fairly heavy job. We expect politicians to have more respect for us and it is not the zero tolerance advocated by Minister Van Quickenborne that will help improve our situation,” concludes Christophe Wachel.
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