Home > Archive > 2012 > Vol 4, No 2 > Thinking about electronic monitoring in the context of pre-trial detention in Belgium: a solution to prison overcrowding?

Thinking about electronic monitoring in the context of pre-trial detention in Belgium: a solution to prison overcrowding?

Eric Maes (Researcher at the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) of the Belgian Federal Public Service of Justice)
Benjamin Mine (Researchers at the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) of the Belgian Federal Public Service of Justice)
Caroline De Man (Researcher at the Centre de recherches criminologiques of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB))
Rosamunde Van Brakel (Attached to the research group Law, Science, Technology & Society of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).)

Prison overcrowding is a major problem in the Belgian criminal justice system, with almost 40% of the current population consisting of prisoners in remand custody. Driven by a goal of prison overcrowding prevention, electronic monitoring has been implemented nationally since 2000, but only as an alternative to the execution of the entire or a part of the prison sentence imposed. This article aims to report some final results of a recent research on the possible application of electronic monitoring as an alternative to pre-trial detention in Belgium.

Keywords: Pre-trial detention, Electronic monitoring, Prison overcrowding, Alternatives

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