Anti-torture committee calls for rethink of prisons policy

Europe’s main anti-torture watchdog has expressed serious concerns about overcrowding in Belgian prisons and a failure to properly manage recurring strikes by prison staff, the Focus Information Agency reports. In a report published today, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) called on the Belgian authorities to take urgent and decisive measures to tackle these long-standing issues. The committee also called for national talks to help draw up a new prisons policy in Belgium. The report follows an ad-hoc visit to Belgium by the CPT in April to investigate reports of deteriorating prison conditions. The CPT delegation noted, for example, that up to 750 male prisoners were detained at the Forest prison despite its official capacity of 405 places. Some detainees had only buckets for toilets, emptied twice a day, while others slept on mattresses on the floor. The lack of activities offered in certain institutions also led to violence, promiscuity and idleness among prisoners. The report notes that the poor conditions in several Belgian prisons have contributed to a series of strikes among staff, often with serious consequences. The CPT underlined its repeated recommendations since 2005 that the authorities ensure a minimum level of service in such situations. With regard to changes recently introduced by the ‘Salduz law’, the CPT stated that access to a lawyer should be guaranteed as soon as someone is detained – not only when they are first interrogated. The report was published with the response from the Belgian authorities.