RESCALED Programme

RESCALED is a programme driven by Porticus funding that advocates for small scale detention houses that have differentiated approaches and are community integrated.    

This is a visionary and constructive alternative to large prison institutions are most often used, despite their being counterproductive at many levels.  It started as a local project in Belgium (also supported by Porticus) that we helped to scale up and become a large and recognised European movement, with members in eleven countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Kosovo, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Some members are managing small-scale detention houses, whilst others are involved in advocacy, in services to (formerly) incarcerated people and in research.   The programme is currently in its second phase (2022-2025).  

  

Why it matters and the difference:  

Detention houses are more sustainable solutions in social, environmental and economic terms.  Large prison institutions at a large distance from society are not sustainable, they are costly and a short term solution.

Detention houses are more flexible and dynamic. As they are small and blend in with their communities, they can at any given time be rehabilitated or transformed into e.g. regular houses. This way, they tend towards environmental sustainability.  Detention houses are economically sustainable as they can create their own income by providing goods and services to their local communities.  

Small scale facilities also tend to allocate (human) resources in a more efficient manner, spending less time in bureaucracy or in complex hierarchies of decision-making.  Detention houses may also contribute to social sustainability. Successful returns will ease the suffering on all parts involved in a criminal act – the incarcerated person, their family and friends, and (potential) victims.  

As Detention Houses are located in local communities, they can promote social and cultural life, and citizen engagement. Thanks to the dynamic interaction, prejudices and misconceptions can be reduced. Over time, this could give rise to stronger and more inclusive communities.   

Thus, detention houses do not only meet the needs of current societies but could also support well-functioning societies in the future.  

  

What we have achieved so far:   

Building a European movement: RESCALED successfully evolved from national project in Belgium to now to a European movement in just give years. RESCALED  is now becoming widely recognised organisation and the go-to reference on small scale detention in Europe.  

Policy agenda setting:  RESCALED partnered with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU (EU2024BE) to put forward draft Council Conclusions on detention houses to the Council. This is an enormous milestone that will hopefully accelerate things further. In this process, RESCALED also held a European Symposium on Detention Houses in the Belgian Senate, mid-presidency, to provide input for the draft Council Conclusions and was invited to present the symposium’s findings at an informal Justice and Home Affairs Councillors + experts (COPEN ) in April 2024 .  

Reputation from all stakeholders: The RESCALED symposium that was held the Belgian Senate in March 2024 included 4 European ministers of justice, leading staff at European Commission and national prison administrations, renowned academics and representatives from 30 European countries, including people with lived prison experience, which shows the appeal that that RESCALED has to both policy, academia and civil society. 

 

The path forward:  

The upcoming years will be crucial to further capitalise on this momentum.  Once recommendations on small scale detention (including differentiation and community integration) get approved by the EU council (expected in June), there will be official European policy text for the first time,  that can be used as leverage on national/regional level in different member states.  Piloting new detention houses on these principles in new countries will become an increasingly important focus for RESCALED.  

RESCALED has built a reputation that might allow them to become advisor to authorities in member states that plan to pilot new detention houses.  Potentially this could become an additional source of income in the longer run.  

The main reason that RESCALED has become so successful in such a short notice is that they always have taken a very constructive position.  Instead of critiquing what is not going well in the current system (and we all know that is a lot), the organization has carefully crafted a concept that offers a vision to improve, and alternative that may serve as a guiding light, even though reality forces us to commit that it is very unlikely that all prisons will be replaced by detention houses.  The idealistic vision might eventually even trickle down to the existing large scale facilities, leading to more sincere efforts to humanise them as well, from within.