Life After Custody: How to Make it Work? A Belgian Approach of Probation and Community Services

ICPA2023 Presentation by Annie Devos and Hans Dominicus (ICPA2023-PID206)

Authors

Annie Devos

Director-General, Houses of Justice, Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Vice-President, Council of Penological Cooperation (PC-CP), Belgium

Annie Devos has acquired a large experience throughout her career in the field of prison and probation. She has consecutively been prison governor (1988-1991), technical expert on prison policy for the Minister of Justice (1991-1995), seconded head of the department for policy and general affairs (1995-1997) and head of the department in charge of the individual inmates' file (1997-1999) at the Ministry of Justice. Afterwards, Annie has run the Belgian probation department – called "Houses of Justice" - since its creation in 1999. At the time, the services depended on the judicial organisation and were then transferred to the services of the Ministry of Justice until late 2014. In 2015, the services were divided between the 3 linguistic communities due to the 6th State reform. Annie has been appointed as Director-General for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, which comprises the head office, the 13 local houses of Justice, the Centre for Electronic Monitoring and the Centre for Assistance to People concerned by any Radicalism or Extremism leading to Violence (CAPREV) and subsidises partner services in charge of offenders’ and victims’ support. Annie Devos has been the vice-president of the Council for penological co-operation (PC-CP) of the Council of Europe since January 2022, and the President of the Confederation of European Probation since October 2022.

Hans Dominicus

Head of the Department Houses of Justice, Agency Justice and Enforcement, Flemish Authority, Belgium

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