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With the Ministerial Circular of 4 October 2000, Belgium’s Minister of Justice Marc Verwilghen sought to re-orient his nation’s prisons toward “restorative detention.” This circular is a rare and significant example of agenda-setting in the field of penitentiary policy in Belgium. In trying to understand the circular’s genesis, we examine three currents of thought – restorative justice, victimology, and the humanization of detention – which have nourished both a research program and a public action program. The Ministerial Circular stems from these programs. We shall focus on the (groups of) actors, principles, practices, devices, and theoretical models involved in this process.