People who previously went out free
Electronic surveillance, a solution to relieve overcrowding in crowded prison establishments? Not really, says Manuel Lambert, legal advisor to the Human Rights League (LDH): “These alternative measures do not replace prison, they add to it.” What we define, in jargon, as an extension of the prison net. “We are going to put electronic bracelets on people who previously went out free.”
This system, often seen as a flexible alternative to incarceration in the flesh, is increasingly mobilized. But what do we know about the consequences it has for prisoners who wear it stuck to their ankle?
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Breaking preconceived ideas
As part of the National Prison Days, organized from November 14 to 24, the Rizome legal aid service placed, in four emblematic places in the Brussels Region (at the courthouse, at the Brussels Parliament, at MuntPunt and at the Maison de la culture de Saint-Gilles), audio terminals which broadcast testimonies of former prisoners put under bracelets upon their release from prison. Rizome’s objective, with which the LDH is associated: to deconstruct the stereotypes that stick to this surveillance system.
The electronic bracelet, “it’s an isolation of another type but an isolation nonetheless”, “permanent stress because schedules must be respected to the letter”“a very limited perimeter, even inside your house.
For the Rizome service, it is necessary to make these experiences heard to dispel preconceived ideas about this system, which is often perceived as a privilege.
A device that hinders reintegration
But the electronic bracelet, used as part of an early release from prison, slows down and hinders reintegration. “Leaving prison is already, in itself, a perilous and complex step: you have to build a new project, find housing, training, a job, etc. The electronic bracelet will complicate all that: it is sometimes refused in certain centers, in certain accommodations”illustrates Jean Vander Wee, project manager at Rizome-Bxl.
“How do you want to live in house arrest on 625 euros per month? It’s an incentive to crime!”
Leaving prison also represents an avalanche of administrative procedures to manage (reissue an identity card, register with mutual insurance, etc.) which are not anticipated during detention. People under bracelet who are still registered in the prison roll and who have no income can only claim, outside, a “prisoner allowance” (650 euros for isolated people; 450 euros for cohabitants), much lower than the poverty line, adds Rizome. This does not allow people to live in dignified conditions or to reintegrate. “Why systematize this first form of punishment, knowing the precariousness of leaving prison for people and their families?“, asks the inmate support service.
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