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Detainee and Mother… What Is the Situation in Belgium?
Frédéric Schoenaers, Marie-Thérèse Casman, Stéphanie Linchet, Salim Megherbi, Laurent Nisen
University of Liège - Belgium
In recent years, the penitentiary institution seems to be changing. Following constant criticism from all origins (European Parliament, Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights, International Observatory of Prisons), Belgium has adopted in 2005 a "Principle Law” about the prison administration and the legal status of inmates. The will to limit the negative effects of detention introduces a principle of "normalization" that "involves the creation of a framework of existence closer to the general standards of living (...) closer to the current reality."
Facing these changes, contemporary researches about prison tend to focus on the situation of incarcerated men, leaving somewhat the theme of female detainees. In Belgium, they represent 4% of the prison population. This contribution aims to study the situation of sentenced women who are mothers of children (0-6 years old) in a twofold perspective. First, we propose to clarify the legal framework around this problematic. The regulations governing the accommodation and access to children but also the conditions of detention of women with a child are coming from various sources. This will provide a detailed inventory of their legal situation and will question the place and effectiveness of the 2005 law. Second, we develop a sociological analysis declined in two stages. A quantitative approach will take into account the number of children whose mothers are incarcerated in Belgium, the number of incarcerated mothers and socio-demographic data of the study population. Then, in a perspective of multilevel analysis of public policy, we question the role and involvement of the (internal and external) stake holders involved in this problematic.