Bunk beds offered as 'emergency' solution to prison overcrowding

Bunk beds instead of single beds are being touted as the solution to prison overcrowding in Haren prison, on the outskirts of Brussels.

The prison administration confirmed this week that it decided to increase the capacity of Haren prison by replacing a number of single beds with bunk beds.

“This is an emergency increase of 43 places,” said the administration’s spokesperson.

The decision was taken over the weekend in response to increasing overcrowding, according to Valérie Callebaut, a spokesperson within the Belgian federal justice ministry.

Single beds are to be removed and replaced with bunk beds in 43 cells. While waiting for these changes to be implemented, several prisoners are sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Haren prison, and there could be several more in the same situation in the coming days, the administration added.

Haren prison is the largest and one of the most modern prisons in Belgium and had, until recently, largely been spared the same issues of intense overcrowding that other jails in the country are grappling with.

“We deplore this situation for our staff, who have to work in unacceptable conditions and inhumane detention conditions,” the prison administration spokesperson said.

“We continue to call for urgent measures to be taken quickly.”

Currently, Belgian prisons have a total of 13,459 inmates for a theoretical capacity of 11,098 places.

A total of 525 people sleep on mattresses on the floor, according to figures released by the administration.