Abstract

Objective Imprisonment has a more pronounced criminogenic effect on drug offenders than on other types of offenders. Additionally, little research has been conducted on the practical application of drug-related alternatives to prison. Therefore, this study describes drug-related alternatives to prison in Belgium over a ten years' period since 2005.

Methods The applied drug-related alternatives to prison (‘probation’, ‘conditional release’, ‘mediation in criminal cases’, ‘community service’ and ‘electronic monitoring’) were subject to a secondary data analysis of the database of the Houses of Justice.

Results Men, the age group of 16–24 years old and Belgians are most sentenced to alternatives to prison. Nevertheless, 38% of women are guided towards ‘probation’ while 8% is ‘mediated in criminal cases’ compared to 30% and 5% of males respectively (p < .001). 26% of non-Belgians are involved in ‘conditional release’ and ‘electronic monitoring’ compared to 22% and 16% among Belgians (p < .001) respectively. With regards to age, 21% of the offenders older than 24 years are involved in ‘electronic monitoring’ compared to 6% among the offenders younger than 25 years (p < .001).