The USA, China, Turkey and Brazil are just some of the countries where the prison population is growing. At the same time, in the Netherlands, prisons stand empty, and some have even been converted into hotels or cultural centers in the meantime. Why is that? What is the reason for the fact that the number of prisoners in the country is decreasing?
The facts
According to data from the universities of Leiden and Portsmouth, between 2005 and 2016, the proportion of prisoners in the Netherlands fell from 94 to 51 per 100,000 inhabitants. In the years since, this trend has not necessarily been sustained, but according to Eurostat data in 2022, the rate of prisoners in the Netherlands (64 per 100,000 inhabitants) was among the lowest in the EU - second only to Finland. Thus, the Netherlands ranks among the few European countries where the number of prisoners is falling. According to the World Prison Brief platform, a similar trend, but somewhat less pronounced, is also observed to some extent in Germany, Liechtenstein, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Baltic states.
Only the Russian Federation has better indicators than the Netherlands, but there the reason for the decline is political: in Russia they release prisoners to send them to fight in the war against Ukraine.
Otherwise, there is no decrease in the number of prisoners around the world - quite the opposite: In South America, since the year 2000, a growth of 224 percent has been registered, in Asia - 141 percent, and in Oceania - 84 percent.
The reasons
The reasons for the decreasing number of prisoners in the Netherlands are many: the length of sentences, the development of crime statistics, court procedures, the work of legal authorities, the costs of imprisonment and resocialization, as well as the relevant legislation.
While in 2005 8,305 people were sentenced to imprisonment, in 2015 their number was only 4,540, and the decline applies to all types of crimes.
Furthermore, the average length of stay in prison in the Netherlands is extremely short. As Leiden scientists have found, half of all prisoners are released within a month. And with regard to people in pre-trial detention, a decrease of 37 percent was recorded for the period from 2005 to 2016.
For the same period, a decrease in registered crimes was also noted - from 1.3 million to 930,000. The lowest level was in 2018 - 770,000, and in 2022 the number of registered crimes in the Netherlands was 798,000 .
Furthermore, since 2006, public prosecutors in the Netherlands have been able to hear cases without the involvement of judges and to impose non-custodial penalties - such as fines or social work. The goal: to speed up the consideration of cases and reduce the workload of judges.
At the same time, the reform did not lead to the imposition of more penalties by the prosecutor's office. Quite the opposite: their number has decreased. As a result, many cases have not been brought to trial and the number of suspects who could potentially receive a prison sentence has decreased. This, in turn, contributed to the decrease in the number of prisoners.
Success story?
However, a 2017 study casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of the system in the Netherlands - the analysis testifies to ineffective investigations and insufficient prosecutions. And at the same time, the Netherlands occupies an increasingly serious place in the trade in synthetic drugs.
According to criminologist Francis Pekes of the University of Portsmouth, the drop in prison numbers does not necessarily mean that crime is also falling. If crimes are not reported or investigated, this logically leads to fewer punishments, but by no means means that crime has also decreased. Evidence of this is the growing influence of the drug mafia in the Netherlands.
Author: Astrid Prange