Dutch prisons consider overseas inmate transfers amid staff crisis
Overcrowded cells and insufficient staff are problems Dutch prisons are struggling with. Hence, there is an idea to send inmates from facilities to prisons in other countries. However, this is not the end of the changes the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has planned for the penitentiary system.
The Secretary of State for the Justice Department, Ingrid Coenradie, emphasizes that in recent months, more and more convicted individuals have not ended up in prisons because there is a lack of staff and the cells are overcrowded.
Hence, the idea is to look for places abroad. As Coenradie argues, this is not a new idea, as a few years ago, Dutch prisons were already taking in convicts from Belgium and Norway.
The past shows that there are options to make agreements between countries - stated the secretary.
Dutch media report that up to 2,000 people who have received a convicting sentence are at large. This includes both minor offences and life sentences.
Other changes aimed at solving this problem include an increased number of multi-person cells and the expansion of the monitoring system.
It is unclear to which specific countries the Dutch inmates would be transferred.
Corruption and sexual relations. Layoffs in Dutch prisons
According to the portal niedziela.nl, nearly 160 employees of Dutch prisons were dismissed between 2020-2023. The reason? Corruption, drug trafficking, having sexual relations with inmates, giving them phones, money, or confidential information.
Another 170 employees in this sector were punished in other ways.
In recent years, the Netherlands has also taken pride in the fact that more and more prisons are closing down, and the buildings are being converted into public utility facilities. The British School in Amsterdam moved into a former prison building of 14,000 m².
Just 20 kilometres away, the former de Koepel prison was converted into social housing and conference rooms in Haarlem.
