A new prison in Beveren is being discussed and designed by the Minister of Finance and minister of buildings and the Deputy Prime Minister. The design, construction, maintenance and financing of the new prison has been worked and decided on. The new prison of Beveren will be available from the middle of 2013 and will have 300 places. The building of the prison will serve as a client for 25 years and will also pay an availability fee to the DBFM consortium. From then on it can enter the prison without paying a fee to the consortium.
The Master Plan 2010-2012-2016 has been approved by the Federal government. The plan has five major actions included in the Master Plan:
a. A renovation plan to expand the storage capacity of the prison
b. The existing over populated cells will get more space for accommodation
c. Constructing seven new cells to meet the rising demands and restoring old equipments to a safe condition
d. Constructing six new facilities to take the place of obsolete equipments
e. Renovation to provide safe conditions
A public-private partnership through a DBFM agreement was decided on by the federal government. This means that all the basics like the designing, construction, financing and maintenance has been outsourced to a private company.
The private sector takes the responsibility of the financing and the construction costs.
The site, where the new prison is being built on E17, is an area on the edge of an industrial and agricultural landscape. Trains can ply in the vicinity of the jail. The application for the permission to build has been submitted to the regional planning authority. The construction work has been started in October 2011.
Humane Prison
The interior of the prison is made such that a positive attitude is infused into the prison members and they will lead a dignified life. This also has a positive impact on the safety aspects of the prison. The way the prison is designed is very unique and different. It reflects an evolving human vision about prison life and humane conditions. The design of the prison is very energy efficient and the commitment is towards the neutrality of the energy used. The concept is clearly very sustainable and futuristic in terms of both plan and space. The image is of a whole prison with separate functional units. This encourages the concept of communal feeling and community.
The design of the new prison is transparent, compact and harmoniously into the scheduled landscape fabric. There are four distinct parts of the prison like – the entrance building, the portion which is cellular, the service building and the logs of the work of the prison building.
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