A new prison for Luxembourg, and criticism
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InaugurationA new prison for Luxembourg, and criticism
SANEM – The Uerschterhaff Penitentiary Center is handed over this Wednesday. This installation is not without some criticism.
Luxembourg will have a third prison, in addition to Schrassig and Givenich. The Uerschterhaff penitentiary center, in the town of Sanem, will be recognized on Wednesday, for a gradual commissioning by the end of the year. But just before the inauguration, associations will organize a demonstration to denounce the prison policy.
“We call on the government to review prison policy. It makes people find alternatives to punishment and incarceration”, explains Christian Richartz, president of the association Eran, eraus… an elo?, active on questions of justice and incarceration. According to the activist, “there is no longer a problem of prison overcrowding” and this “could be better regulated through community service sentences (TIG) and electronic bracelets”.
400 beds
These were carried by 15 people at the end of 2020. The number of TIG sentences had been increasing in recent years, reaching 182 in 2019, until the pandemic came to break the dynamic in 2020. Christian Richartz regrets that the question of incarceration “gives too little debate, perhaps because it is not very politically popular”.
The new site, integrated since 2016 for a budget of 155 million euros, will only accommodate men in preventive detention, therefore presumed innocent. The prison system thus acquires 400 additional beds. Through this, the government hopes to limit prison overcrowding. The occupancy rate stood at 84.2% in 2021 (i.e. 598 people), according to the latest annual report from the Ministry of Justice, compared to 100.1% in 2016.