Crisis in Dutch prisons: There are not enough prisoners in local prisons

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Kingdom of the Netherlands, with its loose views on many aspects that are illegal in other countries, seems to be choking on crime. But in reality, everything is completely different: Holland is forced to close the prisons, because they are empty.

The reason for this situation, unthinkable for many other countries, lies not only in the legalization of drugs and prostitution - although this too - but above all in the special attitude of the Dutch authorities to how exactly criminals should be punished - and whether they should be punished at all.

“We Dutch are very pragmatic when it comes to law and order,” says Rene van Swaaningen, professor of forensics. - Prisons are expensive. Therefore, unlike the USA, where they focus on the moral aspect of imprisonment, in the Netherlands they focus on what actually works and works effectively.”

The Dutch understand efficiency as the examination of each individual case. “If someone has a drug problem, then we treat his addiction; if someone is aggressive, then we teach to manage their anger; if someone has money problems, we lend,”says the head of the Dutch prison Norgerhaven. - We are trying not to punish, but to remove the reason that led to the crime. And I can say that this approach, which we are improving every year, has fully justified itself over the past 10 years."

The Norgerhaven prison is very well guarded, but inside it bears little resemblance to Russian prisons. Prisoners can freely go to the park on the territory, breed chickens or grow vegetables here, they can play volleyball, go to the local library or cafeteria. In the dining room, by the way, prisoners also cook - using knives (which is true, tied to tables). In such an environment, both prisoners and prison staff experience less stress, and after release, people do not have to adapt to normal life.

That said, in Holland, less than 10 percent of prisoners go back to jail. For comparison, in the United States and England, more than half of those released from prison within two years are returned to custody.

Fewer re-crimes, plus Dutch judges prefer, depending on the severity of the offense, either to limit themselves to a fine or house arrest, and as a result, Dutch prisons are closed because they are empty. Over the past 10 years, the number of inmates held in Dutch prisons has been cut in half.

In 2013, 19 prisons in the Netherlands closed. They have been made into shelters for refugees, hotels and even houses. For example, the Het Arresthuis prison in Roermond, which worked as intended for 150 years, closed in 2007 due to a shortage of prisoners and reopened as a hotel 4 years later. The four most expensive rooms in this hotel have their own names - Judge, Governor, Lawyer and Prisoner.

The Bijlmerbajes prison in Amsterdam, after closing in 2016, has been transformed into a modern residential complex for 1,350 residents. In 2015, some of the remaining prisons in Holland were leased out to Norway and Belgium.

The Dutch system of punishments gives excellent results, but nevertheless, the Dutch themselves do not support it all. “It is not fair to the victims of crime,” the Dutch often say. “Perhaps there are indeed fewer criminals, but this does not mean that their crimes bring less pain and suffering. It turns out that a person has committed a crime - and then they help him and he lives in luxurious conditions. And who will help his victim? Something is wrong with such fairness."

In England, there are no such "problems" with the shortage of prisoners, so they purposely built a copy of the famous prison in San Farncisco "Alcatraz" in order to make a hotel out of it.