Friday, September 3, 2010

Eight Prisons in the Netherlands Close: Undercrowding

I found this interesting NRC Handelsblad story via the MPP blog:

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system.

A decline in crime has left many cells empty.During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Interestingly, this "crisis" in the Netherlands is to be remedied by outsourcing prisoners from Belgium. I leave the analogies and ironic head-shaking to you, gentle readers.

-----
Many thanks to Andrea Lobel-Shainblum for the link.

No comments: