Prison Directors Appeal to European Anti-Torture Committee

Belgian prison directors have taken the unprecedented step of appealing directly to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), as nearly 800 inmates are forced to sleep on the floor due to severe overcrowding in the country’s penitentiary system. The appeal, reported by La Libre Belgique, marks a dramatic escalation in a crisis that has been worsening for over a year.

The Scale of the Crisis

As of June 1, 2026, Belgium’s 35 penitentiary establishments held 13,730 inmates against an official capacity of 11,064 places — an overcrowding rate of 24.1 percent. Of those, 738 inmates are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, a figure that has climbed relentlessly over the past twelve months.

According to The Brussels Times, the crisis is most acute in specific institutions. The Mechelen prison, designed for 84 inmates, holds an average of 153 — an overcrowding rate of 86 percent. Dinant, with capacity for 32, houses 57. The Lantin prison, the largest in Wallonia, holds 401 prisoners beyond its 744-bed capacity. Even the new Haren mega-prison in Brussels, intended to alleviate pressure, already has 157 inmates sleeping on the floor.

An Unprecedented Appeal

The prison directors’ direct appeal to the CPT bypasses the Belgian government entirely — a rare and significant act by civil servants who normally work within the system. By turning to the Council of Europe’s anti-torture body, they are signaling that internal channels have been exhausted and that the situation has reached what they consider a human rights crisis.

The CPT had already warned of the deteriorating conditions. In its April 2026 annual report, the committee cautioned that overcrowding of this magnitude risks subjecting detainees to “inhuman and degrading treatment” under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. “Unfortunately, Belgium is no exception within Europe when it comes to people sleeping on the floor,” Alan Mitchell, CPT Chairman, told Belga News Agency.

A Year of Escalation

The crisis has deepened steadily. In June 2025, 320 inmates were sleeping on the floor — then considered an all-time record. By October, that number had risen to 424. December 2025 saw a peak of 618 floor-sleepers. The figures have continued to climb through 2026, reaching 701 in March, 750 in April, and 754 during a nationwide prison strike on May 11.

The Central Prison Supervisory Board (CTRG) described the trajectory in stark terms in its annual report published on May 18. “The introduction of the amended prison regime therefore reads like a chronicle of a catastrophe foretold,” the board stated, as reported by VRT NWS. The prison population has risen by more than 20 percent in three years, driven by a political decision to enforce sentences of up to three years without a corresponding increase in capacity.

Root Causes and Political Impasse

The overcrowding stems from multiple factors. Sentencing policy changes between January 2023 and January 2026 saw the number of prisoners serving 0-1 year sentences rise from 124 to 405, while those serving 1-3 years surged from 399 to 1,476 — a threefold increase. Additionally, 1,074 people declared not criminally responsible (internees with mental disorders) remain held in prisons instead of care facilities, despite a 2016 law intended to keep them out of the prison system.

The “Arizona” coalition government, led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA), has struggled to reach consensus on structural reform. Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) proposed a ten-point plan including extended early release (strafkorting), electronic monitoring, and the use of private security guards. However, the plan has been blocked repeatedly in the inner cabinet (Kern), with coalition partners divided over whether early release provisions are too lenient.

Staff and Safety Crisis

The human toll extends beyond inmates. During the nationwide strike on May 11, prison directors publicly supported the action, describing conditions as “untenable,” according to Anadolu Agency. Serious incidents in prisons have doubled over the past year, and workplace injuries from aggression have risen by more than 30 percent in two years. Trade unions have warned that the situation will likely worsen over the summer holiday period.

International Context

Belgium’s incarceration rate of 113.5 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants and its 117 percent occupancy rate place it among the highest in the Council of Europe. For comparison, Germany has 71.2 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, Denmark 69.3, and Norway 54.1. The CTRG noted that these disparities are unlikely to reflect fundamentally different crime rates, suggesting instead that policy choices are driving Belgium’s overcrowding.

“The challenges and structural problems facing the prison system are neither insurmountable nor inevitable; they are the result of choices,” the CTRG vice-chair wrote in the annual report’s foreword. “This means that different choices can lead to different outcomes.”

What’s Next

The CPT has not yet formally responded to the prison directors’ appeal. However, the committee has previously called for decisive political action, including a review of sentencing policies, greater use of alternatives to detention, and strict limits on prison populations. If the situation continues to deteriorate, Belgium could face legal consequences at the European Court of Human Rights.

For now, the prison directors’ unprecedented appeal has placed the crisis firmly in the international spotlight — and the question remains whether Belgium’s political leaders can find the consensus needed to address a problem that has been decades in the making.