Beyond the ethics code: recommendations for integrity management in the Belgian prison sector
The discussion about the development of an ethics code for prison staff has been going on for a long time in Belgium, partly in response to repeated criticism from the European Committee for the revention of Torture. Although an ethics code can be a meaningful first step towards a broader integrity management strategy in the prison sector, it will not suffice as a stand-alone measure. This article first introduces a model that can be used to structure integrity management in public sector organizations: the ‘integrity management framework’. Against the backdrop of that model, the article then investigates current integrity management instruments, processes and structures in the Belgian prison sector and identifies a number of important lacunae. The article concludes with a number of specific recommendations, arguing that the implementation of these recommendations will increase the chance that a new ethics code will be implemented in practice.