Antwerp Prison Tested in Trial Weekend Lock-In
A final trial “lock-in” was held at Antwerp’s new prison over the weekend of 10–11 October, as 180 volunteers from across Belgium’s justice system had themselves locked up as mock detainees to stress-test the facility before real inmates arrive. As VRT NWS reported, the exercise at ‘de Kade’ — the campus-style prison on the Blue Gate site at Olieweg — was designed to probe the brand-new building’s operations, systems and infrastructure ahead of the scheduled arrival of the first 86 detainees on 9 November.
A prison built to feel like a city
De Kade was officially inaugurated on 2 September 2026 by Annelies Verlinden, Belgium’s Minister of Justice, and Vanessa Matz, the minister responsible for state buildings management. According to the Regie der Gebouwen, the federal buildings agency, the complex has a base capacity of 440 detainees — split between an entity for 396 men and a 44-place medical centre and unit for those with care needs and internees — organised into living units of 22 people each, across a seven-hectare site.
Its design deliberately mimics the shape and scale of a city, with separate buildings, squares and streets intended to approximate the “normality” of life outside. The cell blocks sit on a raised ground level about four metres above street level — requiring some 70,000 cubic metres of imported soil — and are ringed by more than 200 poplars to soften the presence of the prison wall. Detainees move within the secure perimeter using a personal badge, and the site includes a sports hall and communal spaces.
Sustainability was a central feature of the build. The consortium secured a BREEAM ‘excellent’ certification, installed more than 700 solar panels generating roughly 380 kWp, and included green roofs, rainwater and greywater reuse, and heating supplied through the Blue Gate site’s heat network.
The prison was delivered under a public-private DBFM (Design, Build, Finance, Maintain) agreement by the consortium Hortus Conclusus, comprising TINC, Jan De Nul nv and EEG nv. Construction cost €195.5 million excluding VAT, with an annual availability fee of €23.1 million including VAT at 2023 prices, and a 25-year maintenance term after which the federal state takes over the facility free of charge.
Why the trial mattered
The weekend lock-in was the second such exercise: an earlier trial weekend had been held about a month before, in early September. The October event was reserved for people working within the justice system — lawyers, magistrates, justice assistants and researchers — with a limited number of journalists also allowed to take part. VRT NWS journalist Bente Vandekeybus joined and documented the experience in a first-person diary, describing how quickly boredom and the loss of freedom set in.
Romy Geysen, a defence lawyer who stayed in block F, described the weekend as “an incredibly instructive experience” in which the most striking element was dependence on the prison’s structure. “You are being lived,” she said. “You are dependent on the prison’s structure and your freedom is entirely taken away.”
The test also surfaced practical faults. Vandekeybus reported an alarm signal sounding every three seconds in her room, with long waits before staff arrived — prompting one prison guard to note that some real detainees “will go crazy from this.” The weekend was intended precisely to catch such teething problems before the facility goes live.
Staffing concerns cast a shadow
The trial comes against persistent concern from the prison unions. In late August, before the official opening, the three major prison unions — ACOD, ACV and VSO — told VRT NWS that roughly 340 staff were needed for the new prison, but that only about half had been recruited.
“They call that a festive opening. For me it feels more like a funeral,” said Robby De Kaey of the socialist ACOD union. Unions also raised the difficulty of reaching the site by public transport, the separation of couples who currently work together, and the decision to assign part of the guarding duties to a private security firm.
Noa Shoshan, a criminologist at RESCALED, the European movement for detention houses, told VRT that a more open and domestic architecture can benefit prisons only if working methods change alongside it. “That demands different skills and a different role from staff,” she said. “Problems at start-up do not mean the concept has failed, but they can yield important lessons.”
A wider reckoning with overcrowding
The stakes extend well beyond Antwerp. Belgium’s prison system is under chronic strain, and the opening of a modern facility does not by itself resolve it. As VRT NWS reported, the new Dendermonde prison saw 104 staff members resign after opening in 2023, with unions describing conditions there as “untenable and unsafe” and detainees sleeping on the floor as the facility held 543 people against an official capacity of 488.
At de Kade, the government accounts for 15% overcrowding on top of the base capacity, bringing practical capacity to 506, with a further reserve of 66 places. The old Begijnenstraat prison, dating from 1855 and now renamed ‘de Vest’, remains open with capacity for 370 detainees — meaning Antwerp will operate two prisons rather than one. Both were given names to avoid the labels “old” and “new”.
What to watch
The first 86 detainees are due at de Kade on 9 November, with the remaining population transferred gradually in later phases. The key test will not be the buildings but the people in them: whether the campus model’s promise of reintegration and “humane detention” holds up once the staff shortages, transport problems and culture change that unions flagged are put to the test of daily operation.