The aldermen of the Forest and Saint-Gilles districts, Marc-Jean Ghyssels and Charles Picqué, said on Thursday night that they are “annoyed by the lack of management of the terrible situation being witnessed in prisons in these areas.” They say this is at the root of the current strike movement in such institutions.
The prison warden strikes have already mobilised “no less than 132 local police,” sent for to stand in to do the strikers' jobs, say both of these elected officials.
The mobilisation of local police in prisons in both districts is, unfortunately, at the expense of local populations, whilst Belgium is still living through a period of level 3 terror threat.
“Police operations are having to be called off. There is a lower police presence in these districts and investigations are being put on hold,” denounce both Messrs Ghyssels and Picqué within a communiqué.
Moreover, “the federal government has taken no structural measure specifically aiming to remedy the problem of dispatching local police to prisons,” add both Socialist alderman for whom “the so-called linear savings imposed by the federal government across all departments have more than reached their limits.”
They are thus consequently demanding urgent action and structural funds from the federal government for the benefit of justice, security and the local prison system.
(Source: Belga)
