SERA Preventing radicalisation in prisons -

P a g e | 11 ERASMUS+ N° 580247-EPP-1-2016-1-FR-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN PO LICY CONTEXT AND PRISON EDUCATION/TRAINING BELGIUM In recent years, Belgium has witnessed a wave of terrorist attacks. In 2014, a French fighter affiliated with ISIS, shot and killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels (Bremmer, 2016), and in 2016, suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station resulted in the death of thirty-two civilians (BBC, 2016). A worrying finding is that large numbers of foreign fighters originate from Belgium. In fact, a 2016 report by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism revealed that Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita (Boutin et al., 2016). In 2005 the government launched a national counter-radicalism plan (updated in 2015), which details preventive and punitive measures to counter Islamic radicalisation and terrorism. Its chief goal is the early detection of radicalised actors, to ensure that adequate action is taken (Service Public Fédéral Interior, n.d.). The plan extends to radical websites, radio and television outlets, extremist imams and preachers, cultural centres and associations, radical groups, propaganda centres and prisons. Local task forces coordinated by CUTA, the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (Coördinatieorgaan voor de dreigingsanalyse (OCAD)) force are in place, and The Brussels Region, the Flemish Community and the French Community rely on their own action plans, aligned with the national counter-radicalism plan (Kingdom of Belgium, n.d.). CUTA is the designated government organ collaborating with other national and local entities to share intelligence, and identify and assess terrorist and extremist threats to Belgian citizens (Lozano, 2014). In Belgium there are 237 prisoners considered as radicalised. The special “DE-Radex-sections” in the prisons of Hasselt and Ittre each count 20 places and due to this risk of radicalisation this is set to rise. Questions being discussed presently at both governmental level and by the media are: Does the security system (national jurisdiction) and the prevention system (community jurisdiction) works sufficiently well together? What are the budgets necessary to have and efficient system? A noteworthy development relates to the emergence of SAVE Belgium, an NGO founded by the mother of a foreign fighter, that engages in the development of highly specialised training on the topic of radicalisation 1 . Several other initiatives have sprung up at the local level – in particular, the Mu nicipalities of Vilv oorde, Antwerp and Mechelen have hired specialists, otherwise known as ‘deradicalisation officers’, to assist families, teachers and social workers in recognising and responding to the warning signs of radicalisation at the community level. Deradicalisation officers deal with referrals from residents, schools and other organisations, conduct risk assessments and pass on cases to the police or other entities, as required (Thompson, 2016). 1 See : http://www.savebelgium.org/#banner