Collaboration with the justice system
and prison service

Kazerne Dossin offers a unique training day for prison staff in conjunction with the prison service. The course combines historical knowledge about the Holocaust and human rights, as well as reflection on contemporary professional practice within prison walls.

Content

Prison is a challenging work environment where authority, power dynamics and peer
pressure are a daily reality. How do you maintain your integrity as a professional when under
pressure? How do you safeguard human dignity within a closed system?

The ‘Holocaust, Polarisation and Detention’ course encourages participants to explore the
mechanisms of exclusion and dehumanisation. A connection is made between the historical
facts of the Holocaust in Belgium and the responsibility of prison staff today. The programme
focuses on themes such as authority, group dynamics, a culture of silence and ethical
dilemmas.

Programme

The training day is based on two complementary parts:

• Historical reflection. During the morning, participants will take part in a guided tour
  of the museum, which has been specifically designed for prison staff. The common
  theme focuses on the deprivation of liberty and the steps taken in terms of the
  persecution of Jews, Sinti and Roma during the Second World War.
• Human rights, ethical dilemmas and practice. These historical insights are applied
  to the modern workplace during an interactive workshop held in the afternoon. Using
  specific case studies and dilemmas from the prison context, participants reflect on
  their own scope for action and professional responsibility within the prison walls.

For whom and by whom?

This training programme is an integral part of the basic training for new prison staff and is
the result of ongoing collaboration between the Federal Public Service Justice, the
Directorate-General for Penitentiary Institutions (DG EPI) and Kazerne Dossin.

The training programme is led by a team of instructors who are completely familiar with the
prison environment. They speak the language of the workplace and have received intensive
training from Kazerne Dossin in the history of the Holocaust and human rights, guiding skills
and dilemma-based training.

Praktical information

• Target group: prison staff in training, both in security and non-security roles
• Language: Dutch
• Duration: 1 day (09.00 – 17.00 hrs)
• Number of participants: Maximum 15 participants per group
• Enrolment: only via DG EPI