“We will rent, if necessary, the imprisonment where they are available.” During an interview on TF1 this Tuesday, May 13, Emmanuel Macron opened the door to rent a prison in other countries to fight against prison. As of April 1, 82,921 people were arrested in French prisons, for a total of 62,358 operational places, a general density of the prison of 133%.
“There is no taboo in this,” he added, in front of the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, supporting an idea already issued by justice minister Gérald Darmanin.
If Emmanuel Macron has not specified the countries in which this solution could be implemented, you can take an example of other states that have already used this operation. Starting with the Belgian neighbor.
Between 2010 and 2016, Brussels rented Tilburg prison in the Netherlands, near the border. While the first detainees were transferred in February 2010, the Minister of Justice at that time, Stefaan de Clerck explains about the steps of the establishment that the “Belgian Law” applies to him “, with a Belgian director and Dutch staff,” recalls the Belgian radio RTBF.
“Dutch staff received training to apply Belgian law here in prison,” he said. A total of 650 detainees were transferred to the Dutch penitentiary establishment, attached to the world prison in Belgium.
Cost, bad reintegration of prisoners …
But quickly, criticism arose. First, on the cost generated: the Belgian government has released 300 million euros for this rent. The transfer of detainees to attend their audience in Belgium was also “particularly expensive”, underlines in RTBF, Juliette Moreau, lawyer and member of the International Prison Observatory (OIP), very invested in the archive at that time. “It was a total disaster”.
The consequences on the reintegration of transferred prisoners, such as maintaining their family ties, were also pointed out. “He had not inspired the people who were on the sidelines. There was no possible reintegration policy. Nor the visiting families (…) In addition to the problem of languages, obviously,” lawyer Juliette Moreau lists. Rendez-Vous with lawyers was also more complicated.
If the detainees were, in the beginning, volunteers and at the end of the sentence, “the National Team proved to be dangerous,” he acknowledges with Ouster-France, Marc Nève, president of the Central Prison Surveillance Council (CCSP) in Belgium.
The International Prison Observatory had described the “Penitentiary Colony” system, recalls RTL.
Despite these criticism, Belgium seems to want to repeat the experience. According to the Belgian news agency, Brussels studies the possibility of renting or building penitentiary establishments in another European state to welcome foreigners who purify a sentence in their country. Kosovo is a serious way, according to the Minister of Justice, announces Verlinden. Denmark recently signed an agreement with Kosovo to rent 300 places in prison.
Source: BFM TV
