An unprecedented situation on Thursday morning in several Belgian prisons. After a detainee was terribly tortured for days in Antwerp’s Begijnenstraat, an important meeting is planned for soon – at 8:30 am – between the prison unions and Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt (Open VLD).
The cabinet of Minister Van Tigchelt has now announced that the consultation had been on the agenda for some time. There, among other things, overpopulation will be on the table, as well as the problems of aggression and minimal services.
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But the prison staff is clearly dissatisfied with the plans that the minister wants to put on the table. “The minister mainly only talks about the evaluation of the minimum services and that has gone down the wrong way with many people,” says Alain Blancke, national representative of ACV Prisons. “We also asked for measures to solve overpopulation and tackle the aggression problem, but apparently the minister mainly wants to put things in order.”
No food distribution
The staff is therefore not prepared for this, says the union. That is why an early call was made not to start work on Thursday. In several Flemish and Brussels prisons, staff will remain in the refectory for the time being pending the outcome of the consultation later in the morning. So the guards won’t be working there. It is expected that other prisons will follow.
The situation is causing great chaos, because thousands of detainees have to remain in their cells and there is no food distribution for the time being. Prison staff have rarely played it so hard, according to prison sources. “No, nothing like that has happened yet. That’s right,” says Alain Blancke.
It remains to be seen how things will proceed in the prisons on Thursday morning and whether things will get even more out of hand. According to the ACV trade union, the intention is to return to work after the consultation. If the minister does not accommodate them sufficiently, a strike notice is very real.
The cabinet of Minister Van Tigchelt has now announced that consultations on the aggression problem and minimum services were already on the agenda.
