Until it was officially shuttered in 2022, the dilapidated Forest prison housed inmates in cramped cells behind its red brick walls in the Belgian capital. Leading a group of AFP journalists along the empty corridors now spattered with pigeon droppings, Manuel Lambert, head of a charity called 9-square-metres, laid bare the issues. - 'Complete mess' -Opened in 1910, Forest prison was built with four wings splayed out in a star around a central watchtower, meant to echo the "Panopticon" style promoted by English 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Currently, due to overcrowding across the prison system, 663 inmates in Belgium are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, the prison service says. Of these, 156 are in the new Brussels prison in Haren.

Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha April 04, 2026 06:00 UTC