1/5 Cell in the EBI with thick glass and view of the meter -high concrete wall (photo: Department of Custodial Institutions DJI).
The heaviest secure place in Brabant set the door a little on Friday. For the first time in a long time, the media were allowed to look into the extra secure interior in Vught for a few hours, better known as EBI. The ‘home’ for the top of the underworld, such as Ridouan Taghi, Willem Holleeder and other flight -hazard criminals.
You have to be ‘very free’, otherwise you can’t enter. And for all 37 journalists, that means emptying pockets, jackets and bags. Everything must be returned and in a safe, up to and including smartwatches. So far the famous story for anyone who sometimes goes by plane or visits courts. But then.
That ritual repeats itself again in the inner area. Behind a meter -high blind wall is a prison in a prison: the EBI. Official: unit 5.
Behind heavy metal gates and glass it is now really handing in everything. Car papers, keys, passport, bank cards, even your access pass. For some it just keeps squeaking. The shoes go out. There is a little metal in it.
Lock
And then another world of crooked, sloping, rising and falling corridors, without windows begins. With artificial light and intercoms. Total disorientation.
‘Prrrrrrr’, does a buzzer. They open doors in the control room remotely. Because they have seen you on the cameras. And heard via microphones. The door only opens when the other is closed: they are locks. So you have to be patient.
Green colors characterize the Maximum Security Prisonas they call such complexes in America. And brightly colored paintings of old prisoner ‘Q’ who lived here for a long time. A notorious bank robber.
Anonymously
“When he left with us, we made up a neat explanation that he would not claim them later, if they might be worth money,” laughs an employee who has to remain anonymous.
Employees of the EBI have sometimes been the target of crime networks that thought about liberation and hostage actions. Safety for everything. After the threats of recent years, the PI weaped. With large roles of razor sharp NATO stimulus wire. Everywhere: On the roof, along the windows. Sometimes laid double. The extra secure design is extra secure.
Taking photos or videos on and above the site is forbidden. The DJI itself spreads a few photos.
New between the 24 EBI cells is an extra cell for problem cases. “You don’t hear and see anything in that cell. It is intended for very extreme situations. Use,” says a manager. And he has already been used once, but we don’t hear names.
Prison court
Pi Vught has also welcomed a new guest on the site: the court. Not so long ago, the case law started using a few spaces. ‘Territory’, they already call it. Court and court are in charge there.
The judges have their own video conference room, simply ‘Vico’. There are cameras and screens. A suspect can sit behind secure glass, with a box for lawyers next to it.
Armored cars
“We have used him thirty times,” says an employee of the judiciary with some pride. He demonstrates how they make a connection with a court employee in De Bunker, the heavily secure court in Amsterdam-Osdorp.
It is the start of even more room for judges. Because in an existing building, next to the terrorist department, a modest court is being worked hard. As a result, crooks no longer have to tear through the country with heavily armored cars and roaring sirens.
612 cells
Penitentiary design ‘Pi’ Vught, that’s the name of the complex officially. There are eight regimes with the EBI as the best known location, but also, for example, the Penitentiar Psychiatric Center for short PPC. That is the largest care department in a prison site in our country. 270 patients live there.
These are suspects, convicted criminals and TBS people. People with different problems such as psychoses and addictions and the dangers they form for themselves and others. Compared to the relatively small EBI, PPC is a much larger department, just like the house of custody, prison, and terrorist department.
According to the most recent figures from almost a year ago, 612 cells in Vught were inhabited and 66 were empty.
‘System was leak’
The cells are deeper in the EBI complex. It is also striking that it is still being renovated. There are more compartments than before. Here on a staircase, top criminals accidentally had a few seconds contact. That must now be prevented. More spaces are separated with extremely thick glass and doors.
The telephone booth next to the fitness room has also been abolished. “It is a system was leak. When calling, we noticed that there was a transfer and that there were other people on the other side,” says an employee. And then these are just the visible changes. The EBI 2.0 is a fact.
But still. The recreation room seems sober and ‘old school’. With a PlayStation 2. Simple and separate from the internet.
Outside, construction chain stands for the expansion of the EBI, explains director Cees Niessen. “Twelve cells are added. We first build that extension. Then we break through the wall and connect everything. So we deliver everything at the beginning of 2027.”
In the corridors of the EBI, journalists mention various names of possible residents. None of the staff responds. Then the name Bolle Jos falls. “Who knows, we might get it here someday”, it sounds, with some hesitation. And it stays quiet for a while. Who knows.
This is how it is to live in the EBI:
Waiting for privacy settings …