No working day like any other.
In Belgium, 55 judges and prosecutors have voluntarily allowed themselves to be imprisoned in order to experience the prison conditions first-hand. They are to be treated like prisoners there until Sunday followingnoon.
Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, 49, said the experiment might help officers issue well-founded sentences. Therefore, the detention should be made as realistic as possible.
However, the judges do not have to share the cell with criminals who have been convicted. The test is taking place in a prison in Haren, in the Brussels region, where a new prison for almost 1,200 prisoners is due to open at the end of September.
For the staff, the judges and prosecutors are a kind of guinea pigs. They must obey the prison staff’s instructions and are not allowed to use their cell phones.
For this calls the work in the kitchen and laundry. Unlike real prisoners, however, the volunteers can stop the experiment at any time. Will the penalties be longer or shorter followingwards? (gla, AFP)
