successful project allows inmates to enter and leave their cells for a good part of the day. The country has closed 19 prisons in the last four years, among other factors, due to low crime

It is 11.30 in the prison of Zaanstad, just 13 kilometers from Amsterdam. Paul (not his real name) has been in the yard for a while, but has grown tired of being with his colleagues and prefers to return before the stipulated time. When he enters his module, the only thing that is heard is the music that another prisoner has put in his dungeon. Paul does not pay attention to him, he does not even greet him. He passes by a ping-pong table and goes directly to his cell, identified by his name and a photo of him to the right of the door. He himself takes a key out of his pocket and puts it in the lock. His jailer, Johnny (fictitious name), stops him before he has time to enter:
“Wait, wait, do you mind posing for a picture? It’s for a journalist, it would be from behind and you would not see your face. “

Paul stops, hesitates a couple of seconds and responds:

“Can I put something on top of it? I do not want them to recognize me. “

The jailer: “Ok, go.”

The prisoner enters, puts on a black jacket with his hood, goes out and puts the key back in the lock. The photographer stands behind and presses the trigger.

“Click, click.”

Jailer: “Well, now open slowly.”

Paul listens to him, turns the key and pulls, opening the door without using the handlebar.

“Click, click.”

Jailer: “Ok, that’s enough, thank you.”


The issue is this: the jailers spend an enormous amount of time opening and closing cells each time the detainees return from the yard, the recreation room, the gymnasium, and so on. This creates a dependency that has little to do with life that will be outside the walls, when they finish their sentence. Upon receiving the key, inmates can return without having to ask anyone’s permission. The prison authorities have the power to remove it if they detect misuse.

The prisoner can not lock himself in the cell since the key only works from the outside. Also, “it’s not that they can use it at any time of the day, only at the hours that the program allows,” says Leeman. It refers to the schedules that are posted in the offices of the officials. They vary per day and have activities of all kinds: manual work, meals, sports, religious activities, fitness, library, visiting regime …. They are distributed between 7.45 and 17.00. Inmates who demonstrate good behavior have an extra night program twice a week. Outside those times, the cells remain closed with their tenants inside. The jailers have a master key that allows them to open them whenever necessary.


Johnny has been working in the Dutch penitentiary system for 17 years and he looks favorably on the experiment. In the prison of Zaanstad began to apply in October last year and “the relationship with detainees has improved,” he says. Before coming to Holland, in 1999, he worked for five years in prisons in Curaçao. “The here is a paradise compared to that. There could be between 12 and 15 people per cell, here one or two, “clarifies in a more than decent Spanish.

The detail of the keys is, in fact, another measure of a macro program whose objective is to prepare prisoners for their return to society. The prison authorities deal with issues such as where they will live when they leave, what they will work on and give them advice to organize their finances and even their debts. All these elements must be prepared without waiting for the end of the sentence and “within the walls of the prison,” says the deputy director of the Zaanstad center, which repeatedly points to one word: reintegration.

The Netherlands has the lowest ratio of prisoners in the European Union, according to the latest statistics (2015) managed by the Council of Europe: 53 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants, less than half of Spain (138) for example. The fall was spectacular between 2005 and 2017, as it went from 14,468 inmates to 8,346, according to the Dutch Ministry of Justice.

A look at the data from the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics helps us understand these figures. To begin with, the number of crimes committed between 2005 and 2015 has collapsed 43%. This has helped reduce the feeling of insecurity of citizens by 36% in the same period.

On the other hand, the Dutch judges choose more frequently to sanction some crimes with community services (30,000 in 2015) compared to the Spanish ones (17,220 in the same year). Among the jobs they must do are help in the kitchens of the asylums, clean the streets, eliminate graffiti and work in public gardens. The sanctioned must wear an orange vest when they do these tasks and it is common to see them in the Dutch cities.

There is more. In some cases, detainees may serve pretrial detention or the last months of their sentence under house arrest, provided that they wear an electronic ankle guard that controls their movements 24 hours a day. 3,500 people took them in 2017, lightening the prison population.

The Netherlands has closed 19 prisons in the last four years and the current government announced in June that it plans to close another four. “Leaving them open would cost taxpayers millions of euros each year. That money could be spent on other policies, such as reducing recidivism, “the Justice Ministry said in a statement. The closures also use a small trick. A program of austerity applied by the previous government made it possible for more and more frequently two prisoners to occupy a cell, when the usual was previously a prisoner by jail.

What to do with empty jails? In a country where churches are converted into bookstores and breweries because of a lack of parishioners, the sky is the limit. The State has transformed them to cover urgent needs, but has also been carried away by the market. Namely, some have welcomed refugees who could not find a place to live, others have turned into recreational spaces, luxury hotels, or have rented to Norway or Belgium, countries that dealt with prison overcrowding. They transferred some of their prisoners to empty Dutch prisons to serve their sentence there.

Different is the fate of the Bijlmerbajes prison, in Amsterdam. It closed in 2016, but is expected to become a residential area with 1,350 homes. Its huge towers, once used to monitor inmates in the courtyard, will be transformed into student residences. The construction company ensures that 98% of the material of the penitentiary center will be reused.

Source: www.freepopulation.com

Ok

Interesting...very interesting!

I might even go there to relax and straight leg small...
Enough of this naija palava...

(Trumps voice) I'm tremendously Out

Nice

Lol...was here sometime ago, and as was customary we'd be given a loaf of bread, pack of milk, sugar, butter and fruits daily plus a weekly pocket money for grocery shopping. I also had money deposited into my acct from where I buy my chicken and toast my chicken stew which I always shared with my Ghanaian paddies.

On my first day of detention, I checked the loaf I was given and it had an expiry date of the previous day. I say God catch una.

I call my lawyer sharp sharp tell am say dem wan poison me. When we reach court na bread matter we come dey talk o. It was even on the dailies, that an immigrant had taken the ministry of Justice to court over an expired bread.

Na one night the head of the facility sneak come my corner with enough goodies for basket come dey beg say make I drop the case plus they'll grant me special privileges which they did.

Because of me both guards and inmates sabi Naija jams..I dey use my music system blast their head..

The ping pong table was right in front of my door and na me dey control table.

Man don see things for life sha...

Check out the story on my siggy of how I trekked to and fro Europe from Nigeria..Epic

Prisoners there are living larger than so many people in naija here.

DanielOc:
I might even go there to relax and straight leg small...
Enough of this naija palava...
(Trumps voice) I'm tremendously Out

May your wish be granted ASAP.