According to the Central Prison Monitoring Council (Conseil central de surveillance pénitentiaire, CCSP), there is no set system in place for assigning cells due to overcrowding. It stated that it is a balancing act: placements are made according to the number of places available and closeness to families. Officials also try to consider certain criteria such as relations between fellow prisoners and the separation of smokers from non-smokers.
These criteria do not apply to prisoners considered to be “radicalised” (See section Security, order and discipline).

The Loi de principes states that legal assistance must be provided under conditions that guarantee the confidentiality of the meeting. A room must be made available for this and the length of the meeting is decided by the prison director (Article 104). Only visual supervision is allowed during the meeting. The prison director must immediately inform the president of the Bar of the arrondissement where the prison is located if they believe that the lawyer’s visit could seriously compromise their security. They can temporarily prevent a lawyer from entering the facility while waiting for a decision from the Bar president (Article 67).

Some Monitoring Commissions have reported shortcomings. The Central Commission of Louvain noted that inadequate facilities for private meetings impede confidentiality between prisoners and their lawyers.¹

The prison director is obliged to immediately inform a prisoner’s contact (or family, or power of attorney) when a prisoner has died or is at risk of dying. (Loi de principes, Article 95).

A prisoner’s remains must be released to the family as soon as possible, unless the death is deemed suspicious and there is a need to perform an autopsy. The Belgian League for Human Rights (Ligue des droits humains, LDH) was informed that the remains are usually placed in a neutral room, set up to accommodate the family of the deceased.

Existing regulations regarding protection against physical and verbal abuse and sexual harassment, such as in the Penal Code, also apply to incarcerated persons.
The Loi de principes, the legal status of prisoners, and internal prison regulations also provide for disciplinary actions for acts of violence.
Physical and psychological abuse occurs in various forms within prisons. Searches, especially body searches, are particularly critical moments that often lead to incidents.
Sexual violence is rarely reported, due to feelings of shame and fear of reprisals.
Repeated sexual abuse was reported at Lantin¹ prison in 2020. Individual and group physical violence was reported to the Monitoring Commissions. Prisoners cannot always give an account of the abuse. They do not always know the names of the guards, as they often hide their I.D. badges under their epaulets. A memo on the proper wearing of badges was modified in September 2017. It reiterated that the visibility of I.D. badges was mandatory, but this was mostly ignored.
After a complaint has been filed, the perpetrator(s) may be punished.

There are no torture prevention policies in place.

Doctors are supposed to log traumatic injuries in the prisoner’s medical record. In practice, the CPT believes this information is rarely included or is unclear. Doctors do not always send a medical certificate with reports of injuries to the prisoners, their lawyers, and officials.¹

Prisoners can file complaints against the prison service within seven days following the incident (Article 150). They must be in French or Dutch¹ and can be sent by post or email to the Complaints Commission or submitted directly to the commissioner of the Monitoring Commission during one of its visits.² There is a “bureau of complaints” in each prison. Some new prisons have a digital platform called Prison Cloud³, which allows prisoners to contact the commission from a computer in their cell.⁴ The Complaints Commission issues its decision within fourteen days of receiving the complaint (Article 157). The prison director and the plaintiff can appeal the decision before the Appeal Board of the Central Council (Commission d’appel du Conseil central) within seven days after receiving the decision (Article 159). The Appeal Commission files the ruling within fourteen days (Article 162).

Delays for processing complaints are sometimes long for various reasons. In some facilities, there are a large number of complaints filed to the commissions. Sometimes it takes longer for the prison director to prepare their defence, for the plaintiff to be provided with a lawyer, or to obtain further information. Sometimes a hearing may be cancelled at the request of the prison director due to a lack of personnel. Transferring a plaintiff to another facility may also disrupt the routine of a proceeding.
These long delays often mean the contested disciplinary decisions are carried out while the commissions process the complaint.⁵

The Belgian League for Human Rights (LDH) also pointed out that the members of the commissions do not have sufficient knowledge of administrative and prison law.⁶
Some civil society organisations report that complaints are not always treated confidentially in prison facilities. Some prison units do not have Commission mailboxes, and complaints forms must be requested from the officers. As a result, some prisoners do not exercise their rights for fear of reprisals.⁷
The Complaints Commissions declare it is difficult to assess the complaints properly when the prison director does not respond. Several commissions reported receiving many inadmissible complaints due to a lack of knowledge of the complaint procedure. The commissions held information sessions for the prisoners in Antwerp, Berkendael, Beveren, Dinant, Hasselt, Jamioulx, Paifve facilities.⁸

The Sentence Enforcement Court (Tribunal de l’application des peines, TAP) can grant sentence adjustments. The decision to use electronic monitoring is taken by the head of the prison. The decision to allow conditional release or electronic monitoring for persons charged with terrorism or indecent acts comes from the Direction Detention Management (Direction gestion de la detention, DGD).¹