WICC2025-PID078-Aurore Vanliefde De Keyser and Ils Milis

Prisons: An Overview of the Belgian Policy and the Lived Experiences of Incarcerated Transgender Persons

Authors

Aurore Vanliefde De Keyser

PhD Fellow, Leuven Institute of Criminology, Belgium

Aurore Vanliefde is a PhD Fellow at the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, where she is completing her doctoral research on the experiences, needs, and human rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in Belgian prisons. Her study, funded by FWO Vlaanderen, employs a rigorous mixed-methods approach, drawing on data from 17 Belgian prisons. The research is supervised by professors Tom Daems and Stephan Parmentier. Aurore holds a double degree in Criminology and Conflict & Development Studies. She specialises in gender dynamics within prison environments, the experiences of and policies regarding incarcerated people in vulnerable situations and prison oversight.

Ils Milis

Strategic director, Directorate general for Penitentiary Institutions in Belgium, Belgium

Ils Milis holds master’s degrees in criminology and public management. She started her career in 1997 as the head of the medical centre at the prison of Saint-Gilles, later becoming the coordinator for all medical centres within the Belgian prison service. In 2001, she assumed the role of prison governor at Leuven Centraal prison, followed by a position at the federal detention centre for juveniles in Everberg. In 2008, she transferred to the headquarters of the prison service to launch a program management office. Over the years, she has managed multiple projects and programs and currently serves as the strategic director of the Belgian prison service. She also supervises a current project on the development and implementation of guidelines for managing of and caring for transgender citizens incarcerated in the Belgian prisons.

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