EU country tries to export prisoners from overcrowded prisons | World | News

The Netherlands is considering whether to transfer some of its convicted criminals to foreign prisons because of a shortage of prison staff at home.

About 2,000 people are currently not in prison in the Netherlands, even though they should be behind bars because they have nowhere to go.

State Secretary of Justice Ingrid Coenradie said in a letter to Parliament on Wednesday that she found the current situation “difficult to accept”.

She said it was necessary to “take additional measures as soon as possible to ensure that sentences that have not yet been enforced can be carried out, particularly in cases of crime involving victims.”

Coenradie added: “I am thinking of sexual crimes and domestic violence: it is particularly difficult for the victims of these crimes to understand why sentences are being postponed.”

“Given the ongoing high capacity pressures in the Department of Corrections (DJI), this will only be possible in the short term if space is created within existing capacities. I will have to make very difficult decisions between different groups.”

Since autumn, there has been an acute shortage of capacity in Dutch prisons, due, among other things, to staff shortages, increased occupancy and a significant increase in the length of stay of young people and patients receiving psychiatric treatment.

There are about 9,000 prisoners in Dutch prisons, and more than 2,000 prisoners are currently at large, although they should be serving their sentences.

The Foreign Minister responded to a report with statements from relatives of murdered people or rape victims who regretted that they could not put the matter behind them because they now know that the perpetrators are not behind bars.

“I am doing everything in my power to find ways to free up cells so that (released) prisoners and those arrested can serve their sentences,” Coenradie promised.

The Secretary of State is currently examining the possibility of a more stringent prison regime, requiring fewer staff and a redistribution of prisoners, because “by placing limited-risk prisoners (with short sentences) in an environment that meets those risks, space will be freed up in the high-security areas for higher-risk prisoners.”

She explained: “I am also actively committed to finding solutions at the international level, such as enforcing prison sentences for certain groups abroad.”

“The past shows that it is possible to make (contractual) agreements between countries in this regard: the Netherlands has housed prisoners from Belgium and Norway. I am therefore seriously examining what possibilities there are for the Netherlands to make agreements with other EU states.”