Minimum service at penitentiary

6 March  2007

The staff at Lantin’s penitentiary have been guaranteeing no more than minimum service in a protest against the overcrowding of Belgium’s prisons in general and that of Lantin in particular.

It isn’t a strike, officials said, but minimum service. Transfers and movements of detainees have been reduced to the minimum in order to prevent riots. A number of activities and workshops have therefore been cancelled.

There are 1,600 too many prisoners in Belgian prisons and, though they are both realistic and patient, labour unions are calling for some sort of solution to this problem.

In several instances four prisoners are put into cells designed for two inmates.

[Copyright Expatica 2007]

Subject: Belgian news