Prisoner swap

Thirty-five inmates from Wortel Prison in Belgium arrived at their new cells in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg on Friday. They are the first of at least 500 detainees expected to make the transfer.

This is all part of an agreement between Belgium and the Netherlands that allows Belgian prisoners to serve time in rented Dutch cells. Last October, the two governments signed an accord allowing for 500 cells at Tilburg Prison to be rented for a three-year period.

In January, Dutch lawmakers gave their final approval, and Belgium must now pay 30 million euros ($41 million) per year to use the cells. This equals about 164 euros per day for each prisoner. Meanwhile, Dutch inmates at Tilburg will be transferred to other prisons in the Netherlands.

The agreement requires all Belgian prisoners who are transferred to Tilburg to be Dutch speakers. They may not have a history of escape attempts or be considered dangerous to society. They must also be serving sentences of less than three years.

A tale of two systems

Currently, Belgium's prison system holds about 10,400 inmates, which exceeds official capacity by about 2,000 people. Michael Dantinne, a criminology professor from the University of Liege, told Deutsche Welle that the overcrowded prisons are the result of harsher sentencing, less chances for parole, and most of all, more people being placed in pre-trial detention.

"People are waiting for their trial and they are placed in detention, so it significantly increases the number of people who are put in Belgian prisons," said Dantinne.

On top of this, last year there were several prison breaks. One escape in July involved three hardened criminals who were picked up in a Bruges prison yard by a hijacked helicopter. One of the three was identified as Ashraf Sekkaki, a 26-year-old convicted bank robber who was considered one of Belgium's most dangerous criminals.

Meanwhile, the prison system in the Netherlands has been faced with the opposite problem. Around 2,000 cells are vacant, and Dutch prison workers fear they will lose their jobs due to lower numbers of inmates.

One question remains

Professor Ben Vollaard, who researches the economics of crime at the University of Tilburg, said there were two main reasons for the high number of empty cells.

"One is that serious violent crime has been on the decline, so there is less murder and manslaughter," he said. "Second, you see that judges are less likely to send people to prison for lighter cases."

Vollaard added that the locals in Tilburg were not especially concerned about the arrival of Belgian inmates, since the prisoners will be transferred back across the border to Wortel Prison before they are released.

Although the prisoner transfer deal appeared to work in the interests of both countries, Dantinne said there was still one question that had not been debated in Belgium: How have the Netherlands managed to keep their prisons empty?

"This is really the true question for Belgian politicians that no one has asked," he said.

For their part, the Belgian prisoners can expect some benefits behind Dutch bars. They will be allowed to wear their own clothes, instead of prison uniforms, and to cook their own meals.

Author: Matthew Kang
Editor: Nancy Isenson