Thinking about Electronic Monitoring in the Context of Pre-Trial Detention in Belgium: A Solution to Prison Overcrowding?

Abstract

Prison overcrowding is a major problem in the Belgian criminal justice system, with almost 40% of the current population consisting of prisoners in remand custody. Driven by a goal of prison overcrowding prevention, electronic monitoring has been implemented nationally since 2000, but only as an alternative to the execution of the entire or a part of the prison sentence imposed. This article aims to report some final results of a recent research on the possible application of electronic monitoring as an alternative to pre-trial detention in Belgium.