Transfer of prisoners by taxi costs €1m per year

The bill for transfer of inmates by taxi is expected to total €1 million for 2012 – €600,000 alone for the first semester, the Sudpresse newspapers report. This represents a threefold increase on the 2009 total, which stood at €320,000. Last year, the bill came to €790,000. Taxi transfers, which are only arranged for low-risk prisoners, are increasingly frequent due to the overcrowding of Belgian prisons, and juvenile detention centres use taxi services regularly, as Belgian law prohibits the transfer of minors by police van.