Associate Partners

Name of the organisation:	Directoraat Generaal Justitiehuizen Directorate General Houses of Justice
Address:	Leuvenseweg 38 Brussel 1000
Tel:	02/557.51.67
Fax:	02/557.52.10
Web site:	www.just.fgov.be

Name of the contact person:	Mrs. Annie Devos
Function:	General Director
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail:

Name of the contact person:	Carl Beckers
Function:	Attaché
Tel:	02/557.51.67
Fax:
E-mail:	[email protected]

Name of the contact person:	Liesbeth Wyseur
Function:	Attaché
Tel:	02/557.51.84
Fax:
E-mail:	[email protected]

Name of the contact person:	Hans Dominicus
Function:	Head of Service
Tel:	02/557.52.22
Fax:
E-mail:	[email protected]

Type of organisation:

Public Authority

Fields of action:

Public Authorities

DESCRIPTION
OF THE ORGANISATION

The Directorate-General ‘Houses of Justice’ (part of the Federal Government Justice Department) is a public service within the Ministry of Justice. The Directorate General Houses of Justice has been assigned with different tasks. A distinction can be made between penal matters, judicial victim support, civil applications and primary social and legal work. This includes work punishments, electronic monitoring, limited detention, probationary conditional or suspended sentences, conditional or custodial release of prison, protection of the government, internment (conditional release of mentally disordered offenders).
The task of the justice assistant is to guide and help the offender in accomplishing the conditions and to report to the legal authorities.

The Houses of Justice Service are level-organised. At national level, the general departments develop policy, provide training and expert support to the fieldworkers, and support alternative measures and judicial victim support.

Each court district has a House of Justice, which is led by a director, assisted by a team of justice assistants, a co-ordinator, a secretariat and (if possible and needed) an academic staff member.

Their are two regional directors (North and South of the country) with staff who are in charge of the co-ordination of the Houses of Justice within their district.

EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE OF THE ORGANIZATION IN THE PROJECT’S SUBJECT AREA

The Directorate General Houses of Justice has been assigned with different tasks. A distinction can be made between penal matters, judicial victim support, civil applications and primary social and legal work.

The penal assignments are carried out with a specific mandate from the judicial authority (judge, prosecutor, investigating judge, prison administration, etc.). This mandate is very important because it defines the type and range of intervention by the justice assistant towards the offender.

The justice assistant offers assistance and guidance in ensuring compliance with the conditions imposed. The guidance process consists of building a relation of trust among the justice assistant and the offender. The intention is to ensure the smooth course of proceeding of the implementation of the sentence or the measure and to prevent reoffending. The question of the articulation of the supervision and the assistance being contradictory, the justice assistants initiate a pragmatic approach of responsabilisation where each of the players involved are made to live up to their role, their position and the actions to be put in place.

Besides offering assistance and guidance, justice assistants are also asked to write pre-sentence reports (brief information report or social enquiry) for the judicial authority. The purpose of a brief information report is to answer to a specific question of the authority, about the attainability of a certain measure. The intention of a social enquiry is to situate the offence in a larger psycho-social context and to propose an individualised measure.

CONTRIBUTIONS THAT CAN BE PROVIDED TO THE PROJECT

The Houses of Justice of Belgium are willing to share their experiences and practices on the subject. They are willing to participate at meetings, workshops, and conferences to support the exchange of information. The Houses of Justice will give their full attention to the results. The reflection on an international forum is an opportunity to widen their scope on the subject of high risk offenders.

CONTACT PERSON’S EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

Carl Beckers works at the national level in the expertise department that develops policy, provide training and expert support to the fieldworkers.