Mega-prison controversy

As the train rolls into Haren station, little more than a stopover on the way out of Brussels, it becomes immediately clear what's on the minds of many in the community.

"A prison is not the solution!": the phrase, in French, is spray painted in large green letters on a concrete wall alongside the train tracks. But increasingly, it looks as if Brussels thinks a mega-prison in the small community in the city's northeast is the only solution to replace three aging, overcrowded prisons near the city center.

The proposed site of the new prison is a few-minute walk away through quiet streets, past a small church, a few pubs, shops and community gardens. Surrounded on all sides by railroad tracks, multi-lane roads and former industrial sites, the 18 grassy hectares (45 acres) are nonetheless fairly peaceful; that is, however, until a charter flight roars by on its final descent into Brussels Airport.

For the past year, the site - owned by the federal government - has been occupied by an ever-changing group of protesters intent on stopping the construction of the planned prison. They've planted gardens, organized concerts and hosted collective meals with local residents to raise awareness for their cause.

Protests against the planned prison haven't all been peaceful. Earlier this year, the private home of Rudi Vervoort, premier of the Brussels-Capital Region, was vandalized, along with the homes of a number of other people involved in the project. A group of anarchists has also been linked to damage at the office of one of the responsible architects, where windows were smashed, and a fire has been set at another building site of a project associate.

But it's rather calm on this warm, sunny mid-August morning, as about 10 people emerge one-by-one from a small village of tents, camper vans and huts built from found materials, clutching water jugs and heading off to the communal kitchen or bathroom. For the most part, they're not keen on saying too much to the press, but they make one thing clear: the mega-prison has no place in Haren.

Deteriorating conditions

The prison, set to house around 1,200 detainees, is to replace three aging prisons clustered together near the city center, amid the turn-of-the-century rowhouses in the otherwise upscale districts of Saint-Gilles and Forest. Though parts of the prisons were recently renovated, the imposing structures - some dating back to 1910 - are falling apart and badly overcrowded.

"It's terrible, really quite terrible," says Geoffroy Coomans de Brachene, an alderman responsible for urbanism for the city of Brussels. "International institutions have already condemned the conditions [in these prisons], comparing them to prisons in Turkey or Mexico. It's really quite shocking."

Back at the occupied site, one of the few protesters willing to speak with DW is Gael, a slim, barefoot man in his 30s. In the middle of gathering large branches for a campfire, he puts down his saw and rolls himself a cigarette.

Gael acknowledges the fact that a new prison is needed. But he points out that the existing prisons are located on prime real estate in some of Brussels' wealthier areas, land on which the city and developers would be "happy" to build housing and public facilities, like daycare centers or schools - facilities, it must be said, that are urgently needed. But he believes the Haren site should stay as-is, a natural refuge and meeting place for local residents.

"Anyway," he says, "it's much too far away from the city center." He says the distance would discourage visitors to the new prison, who if travelling by public transit would have to take a combination of tram, train or bus to reach the site, traveling for up to an hour. "The prisoners are people, too, and deserve to have contact with their families."

A few streets away, a man in his 60s is washing the windows of his house. He prefers not to give his name but tells DW that he's a lifelong resident.

"It's not that we're against the prison specifically," he clarifies. He says many of his neighbors are concerned about the additional stress that a prison of this size will place on the community, already home to headquarters of both NATO and the European air traffic agency Eurocontrol, a bus depot for the Brussels transport authority and a large rail yard, itself roughly the size of the planned prison, not to mention the nearby international airport. "At some point you just have to say: enough!"

He says the city and region haven't at all planned for the increase in traffic that's expected to accompany such a facility, with the daily deliveries, visitors, prisoner transfers and staff adding to the already overcrowded roads that ring the site.

He says the residents have shared their concerns with the city, but he doesn't expect much to come of it. After all, they're downtown and far away from the problem - "out of sight, out of mind," he shrugs.

'Like a little city'

But it's not as simple as all that, says Coomans de Brachene. Speaking with DW by phone, he said the project was given the go-ahead by the previous city government in 2008.

But because of the complexities of the various levels of government in Belgium - the prison is a federal project, and the various permits must be granted by the region - it's not something that can be stopped quite so easily.

Coomans de Brachene also shares the transportation concerns, saying that the initial project was not initially intended to be so large. He says the current plans are "like a little city," pointing out that several thousand people will need to access the site every day.

If built as planned, the eight-building complex would be Belgium's largest at around 105,000 square meters (about 1.13 million square feet), with three facilities for men, two for women, a forensic psychiatric center and a youth institution. Plans also include a law court, sports facilities, a visitor's center, security facilities and a hospital, all laid out in what's described in the brief as a "village community" focusing on "integration and rehabilitation," according to a 2013 press release, and "not just punishment."

Coomans de Brachene says there are still quite a few permit issues to work out before the end of the year, and says there's still a chance that the federal government may change its mind on the scale of the project. But he thinks the project is too far along, and that too much money has been spent to block anything at this point.

The small scale of the various buildings, the choice of materials such as wood and brick and the addition of green roofs are intended to blend the prison into the surrounding community and provide a more "humane" environment - as is the attempt to disguise the prison wall as much as possible.

But all that may not be enough to satisfy the prison's future neighbors, according to the lifelong resident of Haren. He told DW that the local community is fed up - they "don't want anything to do with Brussels any more." But they may not have a choice.