Belgian Justice Minister Proposes Inmate Sea Labor Initiative

Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Belgian Justice Minister proposes an innovative solution to prison overcrowding: sending inmates to work at sea for two years. The plan aims to reduce costs and promote rehabilitation through employment.

In the quest for alternative punishments to imprisonment and to restrain the chronic overcrowding of Belgian prisons, Federal Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt wants to transfer inmates to work at sea for two years. Belgium’s prisons remain among the most overcrowded in Europe: they now carry more than 12,000 people despite there being just over 10,000 places. 

Is Employment at Sea the Solution to Belgian Prison Overcrowding?

This has resulted in brutal conditions and has hurt the rehabilitation process for people kept behind fences. The Justice Ministry has been working to improve capacity by opening new penitentiaries and detention houses, which slightly eased overcrowding.

Van Tigchelt wants to additionally reduce the number of people kept in Belgian jails by making inmates work en masse. “On average, a detainee costs about €150 a day. This is a serious cost,” he said. “Moreover, locking up convicts does not provide long-term security. Those who end up in prison have a 70% chance of relapsing into criminal acts.” 

Can Inmate Employment at Sea Ease Belgium’s Prison Overcrowding?

He claimed that this alternative punishment would put criminals back on the right path. “Work should become the starting point of a prison sentence. It is the best way to reintegrate, repay victims, get structure and build a life without crime,” said Van Tigchelt.

Van Tigchelt has suggested that inmates who are qualified for parole could work in ‘bottleneck professions’ (jobs for which employers are struggling to fill their vacancies). They would work under severe conditions or electronic monitoring through partnership contracts with companies in need of additional staff, or in penitentiary webshops, for example, where products made in prison are sold directly to consumers.

Will Sending Prisoners to Work at Sea Relieve Overcrowded Jails?

The Minister expects that the development of a Penal Enforcement Code, which lays out how punishments can and should be conducted, will encourage work to be an essential part of imprisonment. This should also arrange how wages are divided among victim compensation, covering expenses of staying in prison and paying outstanding obligations and fines, as well as leaving some cash so people can build a new life once out of prison.

He emphasised that a limited group of people that must be expelled from society for a time because of the acts they have achieved should also work. “We should allow them to work at sea, away from society but still doing useful work,” Van Tigchelt discussed. “If they have an outstanding two-year prison sentence, give them the choice to spend those two years working at sea. For example, in the dredging sector. Here, too, we can forge partnerships with the private sector.”

Van Tigchelt emphasised that he is not vouching for prison boats and jails on uninhabited islands. “This doesn’t benefit anyone. But the future of sentencing is mass occupation and earning an honest living. Then prisoners built something, learned about work ethic, compensated victims and obtained structure. This is the best cure for crime. Moreover, it will cost society much less money and prisons will be less crowded.”