This year we opened a unit for male detainees from the age of 55 years and older. We want to give them the possibility to grow older in an open environment while stimulating their self care, health conditions, mental conditions and self perseverance. The conditions and staff are organized in a way that maximum dignity is the main goal.
In the second part, we will present the way we contain aged inmates with a high care profile in a context of an aged infrastructure with a shortage of professional careworkers. We will first explain how we came to install this exclusive wing for aged inmates.
Afterwards, we will describe our target group, our staff, our infrastructure and our main vision in detail. With each item we will share the situation as is and the challenges. I will end with the stipulation of future perspectives. Besides the presentation we will show photos to give a realistic view on the matter.
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Sofie Vantomme
Prison Governor, DG EPI, Belgium
I started as a restorative justice counceller in the prison of Ypres. After a year, I became a prison warden, as I still am for the last 10 years in Bruges prison. As warden of a department for 375 long sentenced male prisoners, I have installed 4 drugfree open door sections, a section for detainees suffering from mental problems and this year we opened a new department where 10 detainees from the age of 55 and more are living together in an open door environment as a unit.
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Serge Rooman
Prison Governor, DG EPI, Belgium
I started as a prison officer in the prison of Antwerp with de explicit task of organizing socio-cultural activities. After tree years, I became prison warden in the prison of Merksplas. There I got preoccupied with inmates who suffered from mental illness. After 10 years, I was sent to the open prison of Hoogstraten as principal warden. Again, after 2 years, I worked 7 years at the training academy for prison staff to end up back again in de prison of Merksplas as principial warden.