1 A FUTURE FOR PRISON 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 General trends with specific solutions 2
1.3 Focus on penal and prison policy 3
1.4 A future story 5
1.5 Based on views of policy makers and experts 7
1.6 A brief overview 7
2 PENAL AND PRISON POLICY 8
2.1 Penal policy as a limited choice 8
2.2 The emergence of penal populism 12
2.3 From expansionism to reductionism 14
2.4 Bifurcation policy 17
3 THE RESEARCH 20
3.1 Research questions 20
3.2 Some concepts to explain 21
3.3 A note on methodology 23
4 POLICY TOPICS OF MAJOR CONCERN 28
4.1 Prison and other measures 28
4.2 Prison population and overcrowding 35
4.3 Legal position of prisoners and prison conditions 43
4.4 Changes in the characteristics of prisoners 49
4.5 Some concluding remarks 51
5 EXPERT-BASED PENAL POLICY AND THE INFLUENCE OF POPULISM 52
5.1 Bifurcated prison policy and the threat of expansionism 52
5.2 Politicization and penal populism 62
5.3 Balancing professionalism with populism 67
6 CONCLUSION 73
6.1 Bifurcation, shared values and pragmatism: What shapes Belgian prison policies? 73
6.2 Recommendations 76
REFERENCES 78
APPENDIX 1: CHECKLISTS 83
APPENDIX 2: STANDARD LETTER 87
APPENDIX 3: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES 89
APPENDIX 4: SCHEME DATA ANALYSIS 91