Saint-Gilles Prison

During the period of the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1830, the country's prisons were made up a motley collection of buildings that were not destined to become places of confinement. This was particularly true of the many religious houses that had been confiscated as national property after the second French invasion of 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars.[4] In 1830, Édouard Ducpétiaux was appointed inspector-general of prisons for the Provisional Government, only a few months after the Belgian Revolution, and was assigned the task of organising the national prison system in accordance with the most modern standards.[5] In 1848, the cellular system of imprisonment was adopted, when a decree established the principle of individual imprisonment into penal law.[5] This led to a programme of prison building in the country from 1850 onwards.[5]

Saint-Gilles Prison was first planned in 1883 to replace the Petits Carmes Prison located in central Brussels.[6][7] The prison was designed by the Belgian architect Joseph Jonas Dumont and built by the Belgian-French engineer and sculptor Francois-Jacques Derre between 1878 and 1884.[6] It is representative of the cellular system established during the 19th century.[2] Originally a remand and sentencing prison, it housed people (men and women separately) placed under arrest warrant as preventive detention,[8] as well as those sentenced to police or correctional sentences for the judicial arrondissement of Brussels. After it proved insufficient to fulfil this dual function, the new Forest Prison located next door took on the role of remand prison in 1909.[9]

Postcard of Saint-Gilles Prison at the beginning of the 20th century

During World War I, with the exception of the territory behind the Yser river, Belgium was under German occupation. The Germans incarcerated at Saint-Gilles Prison those awaiting trial before the German Council of War in Brussels.[10] Individuals who were "part of clandestine networks, others who had publicly protested against the abuses of the occupying forces, or those who had attempted to cross the Dutch border" were systematically sentenced to imprisonment.[10] Some were transferred to Germany to serve their sentences. Several testimonies report violent treatment in the Brussels prison environment during this period, including cases of physical brutality, death threats and other acts of intimidation.[10]

Among the most notable women incarcerated at the prison were the English nurse Edith Cavell,[11] the French secret agent Louise de Bettignies,[12] and the Belgian spy Gabrielle Petit.[13] Petit's prison cell was preserved for posterity.[14]

The 1885 Saint-Gilles prison cell design with hot water heating, ventilation, gas lighting, a fixed sink with running water, and a toilet bucket in a ventilated niche in the inner cell wall

During World War II, a large number of opponents of the German Nazi regime were imprisoned at Saint-Gilles Prison, either at the disposal of the German police, or to serve a sentence, or prior to their deportation to Germany, most often to Buchenwald. An infirmary was set up in the prison during the war, allowing prisoners from Fort Breendonk to be treated there.[15]

After the war, the leaders of the collaborators and of certain political and military organisations, as well as propagandists and spies, were locked up at the prison.[16] Notably, General Alexander von Falkenhausen, military governor of Belgium and northern France during the occupation, was detained there from 1948 to 1951.

In the 1980s, Jean Bultot, who was named in the Nijvel Gang case, was deputy director of Saint-Gilles Prison. In the decades that followed, many tensions arose at the prison, including due to overcrowding and staff shortages, leading to prisoner uprisings (such as in 1987 and 2009) and staff strikes.[17] Since the 1990s, the prison has been overcrowded, with about eight hundred inmates (mainly pre-trial detainees).[18][19] On 3 May 1993, the gangsters Murat, Lacroix and Bajrami escaped from the prison. They took then-inspector-general Harry Van Oers hostage, forced him onto the bonnet of their getaway car and drove out of the prison gate.[20]

As of 2023, Saint-Gilles Prison is scheduled to close. Three cell wings in the prison will remain in use until the end of 2024, when it will be replaced by Haren Prison.[3]