Prison overcrowding in Belgium has reached a new and troubling record, with 13,118 inmates currently in custody, according to La Libre Belgique on Tuesday.
Official figures from the prison administration reveal that there were 13,118 inmates in Belgian prisons on Monday, despite capacity for only 11,040, with 320 inmates forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor. This marks an all-time high, the newspaper highlights.
Thérèse d’Udekem d’Acoz, President of the Prison Monitoring Commission (CSP) of Huy-Marneffe, raised concerns about severe overcrowding, with up to 98 inmates housed in facilities designed for 63. The critical overcrowding situation compels some inmates to sleep on the floor in cells originally meant for one but now holding four.
On certain days, mattresses are laid on the floors of cramped 9m2 cells, fitted between a bunk bed, a narrow table, two chairs, and a WC partitioned by a small wall. This setup leaves inmates with no room to move as they are confined for 23 hours a day, she explains, describing other dire living conditions.
“These are disgraceful detention conditions unworthy of a state governed by the rule of law, which we must denounce as guardians of prison human rights,” states the president of the CSP of Huy-Marneffe.
