The law already makes prevision for two types of alternative measures to detention on remand, which assures the legal system with a certain degree of cooperation on the part of the defendant, without for all that imprisoning him.

Conditional discharge. It can be decided to leave free, or to make free, the interested party in imposing on him one or more conditions for a fixed time (maximum 3 months, extendable). For example: a ban on leaving a given territory; a ban on going to certain places or to living there; a ban on driving certain vehicles; a ban on coming into contact with certain people (often the co-accused or witnesses); the obligation to present themselves to certain people (e.g. doctors), or certain authorities or services (detox centres) indicated by the judge; etc.

Release on bail. The examining magistrate can, in ordering the release of the accused, demand the prior payment of a sum of money fixed by him in taking into account the financial means of the interested party. The aim of this ‘deposit of guarantee’ is to prevent the risk of the charged person fleeing and thus to ensure his presence at the later stages of procedure. Belgium nevertheless makes only moderate use of this system which, applied without discernment, risks inaugurating a class based legal system: only the rich would be able to find their liberty, whilst the poorest would remain doomed to imprisonment.

New measures could complete the existing law with a view to containing or reducing the prison population:

Electronic surveillance. Already applied to the convicted, it could be extended, in certain cases, to people on remand, observes Benoît Dejemeppe, an advisor to the Court of Appeal and the writer of the preface to the work on detention on remand.

Placing a ceiling on detention on remand. It would be a question of limiting, over time, the period during which a person can be held on remand. In the Netherlands for example, this ceiling is one of six months.