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The RESCALED concept is not implemented in the Netherlands that meet the complete concept with the three pillars. However, there are many different small scale houses (22 Exodus Houses) and other provisions for different purposes; reintegration, addiction, mental health care, for juveniles (5 houses realized before 2024), and in some cases, only for specific crimes. The Netherlands is a country where innovative change mostly happens bottom up, while things change slowly top down and through decisions made by consensus, a polder model society. The strategy in the Netherlands is to support all initiatives and organizations related to RESCALED ideology in the work they are already doing and aligning it more to RESCALED vision and mission. We see that there are already many good practices out there of which success has been proven, therefore the focus is on working together with organizations while propagating the ideology of RESCALED and strengthening & upscaling practices and educate professionals towards RESCALED mission and vision. For us, it is not only about creating houses, it is about change in society. Sharing a vision of how to deal with people who have trouble becoming part of society, detention houses being the symbols of this change.
Restorative Justice Netherland is an NGO. Its mission is to promoting a more participatory and communicative society by supporting citizens to maintain control over the conflict (or the nature of the underlying problems), its consequences and the possible solution or settlement of these crimes and other conflicts. The ultimate goal is to repair relationships and damage where possible from the threefold perspective of victim, perpetrator and community.
Restorative Justice Netherland’s vision is to connect citizens, scientists, stakeholders and providers of restorative justice and restorative practices in order to increase citizens’ own strengths. To this end, RJN wants to work with people and organizations to find alternatives to and additions to the current, often exclusively legal, framework with which the exceeding of standards and rules is answered.
How does RJN do this?
The Netherlands is a country with 17,3 million inhabitants. Any given day there are about 8.200 people in prison plus 1350 with involuntary commitment, 390 people in immigration detention and 395 juveniles in detention. Custodial Institutions Agency has 50 locations across the country and about 13,000 employees. Every year, approximately 37,000 new detainees are admitted. DJI (Dutch Prison Authority) has different types of institutions for various categories of inmates and patients. There are remand centres and prisons for adults. Furthermore, there are correctional institutions for juvenile offenders and forensic psychiatric centres for convicted adults who require psychiatric care. Detention centres are used for foreign nationals living illegally in the Netherlands, individuals who have been refused entry at the border and drugs couriers.
However many houses that are most closely related to the RESCALED vision are legally subject to forensic care. Forensic care is usually ordered by a judge. The forensic care title is the funding basis for reimbursement by the Ministry of Justice and Security. There are 28 forensic care titles: 24 criminal titles, two forms of forensic psychiatric supervision (FPS), in-depth diagnosis and the intended indication of the probation service. Under certain conditions, the latter title can be used to provide a suspect with care before one of the criminal titles is involved.
The forensic care titles can be divided into seven categories, namely*:
Wayback was founded in 2002, by inmates in Oslo prison. The establishment was inspired by the idea that former prisoners are best suited to help convicts to return to a law-abiding life.
The purpose of the organisation is to help people who are released to get an easier transition to society, by supporting the individual in the process of re-establishing their life. Wayback works for and with both current and former inmates, and assist its members in the five main areas of housing, finances, social network, health and employment. The core of Wayback is the mentoring scheme, meaning that the convict is supported by a mentor who has made the transition to a life without crime. A mentor supports the inmate during and after the sentence, and is committed to giving hope in an otherwise difficult situation. The organisation is further built on the principles of companionship, equality and solidarity. The convict is thus seen as an equal, and not a client.
Wayback has offices in five Norwegian cities (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Kristiansand, Tromsø), and currently has 14 employees and about 40 volunteers. The offices are open 5 days a week, and offer a wide range of activities and events including yoga, daily lunches, dinners, and cabin trips.


In the near future RESCALED Belgium will focus on different target groups at the prisons. After 8 years of campaigning and spreading the message ‘replace the prison system by small scale detention houses’, the organisation found out that it is also very important to focus on more specific cases. “To launch the penal transition, it is important to start with some small steps.” For instance: in 2018 RESCALED Belgium set up the target group ‘prisoners at the end of their sentences’, and achieved some political decisions to build two transition houses for this specific group. In 2019 the organisation launched a campaign focusing on detention houses for young prisoners between 18 and 25 years old. This topic is already incorporated in party manifestos. Another example is the strategy to develop a business plan for mothers residing with their children (younger than 3 years old) in prison. RESCALED Belgium believes that it is urgently necessary to get this group of people out of the mainstream prison system transferring them into detention houses. Exactly the same thing needs to be carried out for prisoners doing short sentences, and so on.
RESCALED Belgium (De Huizen) is doing everything in its power to achieve the goals of its step-by-step strategy. The organisation is setting up campaigns for students, politicians, prison-based staff as well as for the general public. Recommendations are drawn up and articles were published in several newspapers. Once certain goals have been achieved new target groups will be set up.
Vzw De Huizen has been promoting the detention houses concept for eight years and it is now becoming well known in the political and academic world, within society and in the ‘prison system’ itself. It all started in 2011 when Hans Claus (prison governor at the Oudenaarde prison and founder of vzw De Huizen) came up with the idea of small scale detention. “Don’t be afraid to think outside the box!” During his career as a prison governor, spanning 25 years up to the present day, he discovered that the prison system is not the right way to punish people. “If we are to solve the current problems effectively, we must resolutely opt for a new penitentiary paradigm, namely small scale detention houses.”
Hans Claus presented his De Huizen concept, the dream of ‘a more differentiated enforcement of sentences that fits in with the neighbouring community’, to the Human Rights League. They committed themselves to further develop the concept and then support it. This led to the creation of VZW De Huizen. A number of working groups with professionals from different disciplines were set up. The vzw develops its mission and vision statements and focuses on three principles: small scale, differentiation and proximity.
Vzw De Huizen, supported by various partner organisations and 60 volunteers, has created a large network of organisations and people of all kinds of backgrounds, promoting the small scale detention concept. It keeps expanding its network by contacting schools, universities, cultural centres and attending major events. Finally, the organisation is participating in debates on social issues to raise awareness about the new penitentiary paradigm.
The current situation of the prison system in Belgium is not that positive. The major issues facing prisons today are broadly known. They can no longer be denied. Not a week goes by without someone criticising our prison system. Drug use, suicide, violence, staffing shortages, strikes, overcrowding, high degree of recidivism, unhygienic living conditions, condemnations by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, and so on. The large prisons of a former era are clearly negatively characterised. The fact that their problems cause constant commotion in society indicates a great dissatisfaction with the system. These problems are not new, but society expects more from the prison system than before, and rightly so.
The current political actions are contradictory. There is a growing consensus about the need for change in our penal system. Multiple organisations and politicians understand that a new penitentiary paradigm is necessary and the public opinion is changing towards supporting a new system. Recently, the first two transition houses have been set up in Flanders and Wallonia. The first small scale detention house is no longer a dream but is now part of the existing penal system. But apart from this the government is building some new large prisons and even amendments were made to the Law. Now people have to do short prison sentences, whereas in the past sentences up to 3 years were not carried out.
Small scale detention and future steps;
Currently there are two small scale detention houses in Belgium for prisoners approaching the end of their sentences, as stated above. Both houses can accommodate up to 15 inmates. But the government decided to build transition houses for 100 people. In the near future there will be an expansion of our transition houses in Belgium.
Due the overcrowded Belgian prisons and the amendment to the Law concerning short sentences, a solution for the overcrowding must be found. Perhaps small scale, differentiated and community-integrated detention houses?
And last but not least our young inmates between 18 and 25 years old. This target population is mostly at the beginning of a criminal career and is often very vulnerable. Several Belgian political parties incorporate this RESCALED solution in their party manifestos.




There are two establishments in France with the 3 pillars of RESCALED. These are two farms, La ferme de Moyembrie (Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique) (fermedemoyembrie.fr) and La Ferme de Lespinassière (Aude) (lespinassiere.com/pages/village/les-associations/o-g-f-p/). They are members of a NGO called Emmaüs (emmaus-france.org). One other farm will open soon, only for women at the end of their sentence (Ferme Emmaüs Baudonne, www.fermeemmausbaudonne.fr).
These farms are examples that demonstrate the importance of rethinking prison as it is thought today. Far from being utopian, these initiatives have demonstrated that it is possible to propose an alternative model to the current prison system. The farms come closer to the concept of a detention house as defended by the RESCALED movement by promoting the conditions for successful reintegration. We want to promote these small scale facilities. In order to do so, we wish to federate the actors of the prison-justice field (academics, civil society, medias, NGOs, policy makers, prison staff, people in detention, representatives of penal institutions, etc.) and stimulate debate on prisons and its effects on people in detention and staff
The purpose of FARAPEJ is, based on the Declaration of Human Rights, to contribute to the improvement of the functioning of the justice and the police force and to act to limit the destructive effects of the prison. For this, FARAPEJ brings together individuals and federate associations that act for justice and wish to develop reflection in the service of action.
Currently, French prisons have a population of approximately 60,000 inmates in 185 prisons. Among these establishments, there are two main categories, the remand prisons and the penitentiary centres. Remand prisons include persons sentenced to less than 2 years’ imprisonment and people waiting for their court date. Penitentiary centres are facilities for persons sentenced to more than 2 years’ imprisonment in structures with a higher or lower level of security (detention centre, central house). However, other types of structures are added to the French prison system with the main objective of preparing for release. Day-leave centres and wings, which are smaller in size, allow detainees to work outside (vocational, training, etc.). Lastly, work placement is a sentence adjustment measure that allows a person sentenced to a prison term to serve all or part of his or her sentence outside a prison establishment, under a specific regime. The person is usually accommodated and accompanied by an association.
The RESCALED concept is not implemented in Portugal: there are no examples of detention places that meet the three RESCALED pillars. APAC Portugal is aligned with them and believes that the most efficient strategy to affirm and spread the RESCALED vision is through the implementation of a pilot that exemplifies the concept in a very concrete way, namely – but not only – in order to prove its outcomes and benefits. Thus, the strategy of APAC Portugal for RESCALED is focused on the implementation of a pilot of a small scaled detention house, integrated in the community and with a differentiated treatment of inmates. Simultaneously, APAC Portugal – inspired by the example of other countries represented in the RESCALED movement – is also advocating for legislative changes that provide a legal basis – currently inexistent – for the creation of detention or transition houses in Portugal, possibly ran by entities other than the prison administration, even if in strong collaboration with it.
APAC Portugal [Association for the Protection and Support of Convicted Persons in Portugal] was founded in 2015 with the mission to implement and disseminate innovative solutions to transform the lives of current or former inmates, providing them the incentives and tools that are necessary for their effective reintegration in society.
APAC’s vision is that the purpose of reintegration – underlying any sentence – will be attained with greater efficacy and humanity if the depravation of liberty is lived in small-scaled detention places, integrated in the community and with a differentiated treatment of each person. APAC also supports that the penitentiary treatment given to each convicted person shall be oriented by principles of human dignity and meritocracy, shall provide for health, legal, employment and spiritual needs and shall be based on peer, community and family support.
As a complement to its main mission, APAC also implements programs focused [i] on the integration of inmates into the labor market and [ii] on the development of their personal and social skills.
Portugal has a universe of almost 11.000 inmates spread throughout 49 prison establishments which vary significantly in terms of dimension and population: there are highly dimensioned and overpopulated buildings with > 1000 inmates and also small scaled buildings with up to 30 inmates. The prison system suffers from a shortage of staff focused on social rehabilitation and the daily routines of the majority of inmates are not reintegration friendly. The labor market for inmates is practically inexistent and the hours spent in incarceration are mainly vacant and useless.
The existence, in Portugal, of small dimensioned prison establishments located within communities represents an opportunity to transform the prison system from within: those prison establishments are potentially good places to implement a RESCALED approach to incarceration, with a differentiated treatment of inmates and with the involvement of local communities. Successful results may then pave the way for a broader change.
There are no detention or transition houses in Portugal ran from entities other than the prison administration (either institutions, associations or private companies). Apart from electronic surveillance, the national legislation does not grant, until this moment, a legal basis for the deprivation of liberty in a place different from a prison establishment.