Conditional release in Belgium: how reforms have impacted recall

Korte inhoud:Following the Dutroux case in 1996, the Belgian parole system was thoroughly
reformed in 1998 and 2006. Decision-making was transferred from the Minister of
Justice to multidisciplinary Sentence Implementation Courts, supervision and
follow up of conditionally released prisoners was tightened and the proportion of
recalls increased. Recall of conditional release hence results from the interaction
between three main parties: the offender, the supervising probation officer and
the Sentence Implementation Court who takes the final
decision. This paper looks into the consequences of these reforms for two of these
parties: the justice assistants, who struggle to keep their professional discretion in the
decision to recall, and prisoners, who increasingly turn away from conditional release,
thus avoiding recall to prison altogether.

Jaar van publicatie:2012

Trefwoorden:conditional release, recall, professional discretion, maxing out

Reviewstatus:Peerreview