JUSTICE TRENDS JUSTICE TRENDS Nr. 1 | June 2017 | Page 123

europe / europa
So it’s not like in [other] businesses, that first you do a business or
marketing plan! Because we have to deal with the prison officers
we have, they are not specialized or skilled in business areas,
they all passed the exam for being prison guards. If, for example,
tomorrow we don’t have a good baker, our bakery is going to close
down! Yesterday we had a huge reception in a prison that has a
bakery inside. That is the bakery that makes the bread for all the
prisons of Flanders. They produce a new style of bread because we
have a new prison officer and two prisoners who are specialized
in bakery. We are certain that in the upcoming months there will
be a flow of nice things.
But this is what makes us vulnerable, as we are very dependent
on the skills of the staff and inmates that we have in a certain
moment. We are happy when they come up with ideas that can
lead to products. This is one of the reasons – being the others the
future employment opportunities that may be generate, or the skills
development according to market needs – why the focus should
be on contracts with companies.
JT: Prior to putting the inmates to work, you certainly have to
provide them with some training. How does this work?
CM: We try to have courses to teach inmates to have a profession,
and, sometimes, first they learn the basics, and then they continue
to learn while doing a job in the prison. As mentioned before, one
of the main difficulties we have is the lack of specialization – in
areas related to prison work – of the existing prison staff. As an
ex