{"id":3314,"date":"2023-10-08T13:06:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T13:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/?p=3314"},"modified":"2023-10-08T13:08:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T13:08:02","slug":"prison-lessons-from-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/?p=3314","title":{"rendered":"Prison lessons from the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1248px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\">Your report (UK could rent space in foreign jails to ease shortage of cells, 3 October) did not raise the question of why the Netherlands, or any country, should have prison space to spare. A whole empty prison in the Netherlands was able to be brought back into use for Norwegian prisoners, for example.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\">From 2005 to 2022, the numbers imprisoned in the Netherlands fell from 50,650 to 30,380. In the same period our prison population rose from 76,190 to 80,659. In the Netherlands, the reduction is partly because it doesn\u2019t need the capacity. While prison is the answer in a number of situations, it is not the only way to punish offenders.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\">Authorities in the Netherlands<\/span><span style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\"> have found that alternative methods work far better at cutting reoffending than short sentences. Methods such as curfews and <\/span><em><span style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\">taakstraf<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: rgb(242, 241, 236);\"> (requiring offenders to do specified work in their free time) are used often \u2013 perhaps backed up by a suspended sentence as \u201cencouragement\u201d. Offenders stand a better chance of keeping a job or studying, and the state is not paying to feed and house them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org\/c\/s\/amp.theguardian.com\/society\/2023\/oct\/06\/prison-lessons-from-the-netherlands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" style=\"color: rgb(255, 145, 77);\">Read more here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3317,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions\/3317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speirenua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}