A house is a house is a house

In the near future RESCALED Belgium will focus on different target groups at the prisons. After 8 years of campaigning and spreading the message ‘replace the prison system by small scale detention houses’, the organisation found out that it is also very important to focus on more specific cases. “To launch the penal transition, it is important to start with some small steps.” For instance: in 2018 RESCALED Belgium set up the target group ‘prisoners at the end of their sentences’, and achieved some political decisions to build two transition houses for this specific group. In 2019 the organisation launched a campaign focusing on detention houses for young prisoners between 18 and 25 years old. This topic is already incorporated in party manifestos. Another example is the strategy to develop a business plan for mothers residing with their children (younger than 3 years old) in prison. RESCALED Belgium believes that it is urgently necessary to get this group of people out of the mainstream prison system transferring them into detention houses. Exactly the same thing needs to be carried out for prisoners doing short sentences, and so on. 

RESCALED Belgium (De Huizen) is doing everything in its power to achieve the goals of its step-by-step strategy. The organisation is setting up campaigns for students, politicians, prison-based staff as well as for the general public. Recommendations are drawn up and articles were published in several newspapers. Once certain goals have been achieved new target groups will be set up.

Vzw De Huizen has been promoting the detention houses concept for eight years and it is now becoming well known in the political and academic world, within society and in the ‘prison system’ itself. It all started in 2011 when Hans Claus (prison governor at the Oudenaarde prison and founder of vzw De Huizen) came up with the idea of small scale detention. “Don’t be afraid to think outside the box!” During his career as a prison governor, spanning 25 years up to the present day, he discovered that the prison system is not the right way to punish people. “If we are to solve the current problems effectively, we must resolutely opt for a new penitentiary paradigm, namely small scale detention houses.”

Hans Claus presented his De Huizen concept, the dream of ‘a more differentiated enforcement of sentences that fits in with the neighbouring community’, to the Human Rights League. They committed themselves to further develop the concept and then support it. This led to the creation of VZW De Huizen. A number of working groups with professionals from different disciplines were set up. The vzw develops its mission and vision statements and focuses on three principles: small scale, differentiation and proximity.

Vzw De Huizen, supported by various partner organisations and 60 volunteers, has created a large network of organisations and people of all kinds of backgrounds, promoting the small scale detention concept. It keeps expanding its network by contacting schools, universities, cultural centres and attending major events. Finally, the organisation is participating in debates on social issues to raise awareness about the new penitentiary paradigm.

The current situation of the prison system in Belgium is not that positive. The major issues facing prisons today are broadly known. They can no longer be denied. Not a week goes by without someone criticising our prison system. Drug use, suicide, violence, staffing shortages, strikes, overcrowding, high degree of recidivism, unhygienic living conditions, condemnations by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, and so on. The large prisons of a former era are clearly negatively characterised. The fact that their problems cause constant commotion in society indicates a great dissatisfaction with the system. These problems are not new, but society expects more from the prison system than before, and rightly so.

The current political actions are contradictory. There is a growing consensus about the need for change in our penal system. Multiple organisations and politicians understand that a new penitentiary paradigm is necessary and the public opinion is changing towards supporting a new system. Recently, the first two transition houses have been set up in Flanders and Wallonia. The first small scale detention house is no longer a dream but is now part of the existing penal system. But apart from this the government is building some new large prisons and even amendments were made to the Law. Now people have to do short prison sentences, whereas in the past sentences up to 3 years were not carried out.

Small scale detention and future steps;

Currently there are two small scale detention houses in Belgium for prisoners approaching the end of their sentences, as stated above. Both houses can accommodate up to 15 inmates. But the government decided to build transition houses for 100 people. In the near future there will be an expansion of our transition houses in Belgium.

Due the overcrowded Belgian prisons and the amendment to the Law concerning short sentences, a solution for the overcrowding must be found. Perhaps small scale, differentiated and community-integrated detention houses?

And last but not least our young inmates between 18 and 25 years old. This target population is mostly at the beginning of a criminal career and is often very vulnerable. Several Belgian political parties incorporate this RESCALED solution in their party manifestos.