Netherlands to Send Prisoners Abroad to Serve Sentences due to Lack of Staff in Prisons

Due to an acute shortage of staff in prisons, the Netherlands is exploring the possibility of transferring convicts to serve their sentences to other countries.

This is reported by NOS.

‘State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Security Ingrid Coenradie wants to investigate whether certain groups of prisoners can serve their sentences abroad,’ the report says.

In an address to the House of Representatives, she wrote that due to a shortage of staff in prisons, more and more convicts are waiting for their sentences to be released.

It is noted that her predecessor, who was responsible for the penitentiary system, had already taken various measures to ensure that only those guilty of serious crimes were imprisoned. For example, some convicts were sent home early with an electronic bracelet.

It was generally believed that the majority of people on the loose were those who had committed minor crimes. Recently, however, information has begun to emerge that among them are drivers who caused deaths in road accidents and convicted of sexual offences. Some of them have been waiting to be summoned since December last year, but have not spent a single day in prison.

Coenradie said that she plans to ease the pressure on the penitentiary system through a number of measures and is actively looking for prison cells abroad.

Over the past 20 years, due to the small number of prisoners in the Netherlands, the number of prisons has decreased by almost three times. At the same time, some cells have been used to serve sentences for convicts from Belgium and Norway. In addition, many buildings that were once prisons have been converted into entertainment centres, hotels and cinemas.