{"id":201065,"date":"2021-12-13T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=201065"},"modified":"2024-05-23T08:09:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T07:09:42","slug":"why-the-dutch-are-closing-prisons-and-what-theyre-doing-with-empty-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/12\/why-the-dutch-are-closing-prisons-and-what-theyre-doing-with-empty-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Dutch Are Closing Prisons \u2013 and What They\u2019re Doing with Empty Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 Dec 2021 – The Netherlands has reduced its prison population to such a degree that it\u2019s now turning old prisons into socially useful buildings, such as schools and refugee centres. What went right?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The former Boschpoort prison in the city of Breda is now the FutureDome entertainment venue. Credit: Prison Escape<\/p><\/div>\n

A vast X-shaped building marks the spot on an Amsterdam map that has brought a decade-long search to a close.<\/p>\n

Spread across three maxed-out campuses, with almost 1,000 students on roll, the British School of Amsterdam had struggled to keep up with the capital\u2019s growing demand for international education. That was until it found the striking 14,000m2 property, which it moved into in April.<\/p>\n

The site had many advantages, not least its security, because \u2212 until recently \u2013 it had in fact been a prison. What is now the school\u2019s freshly painted theatre with shiny chestnut-coloured beams was, until 2013, the prison chapel. And the mirrored dome at the building\u2019s heart was a way to survey the four corridors branching out from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve kept the wings. They just worked really well for each of the school sections,\u201d explains the school\u2019s communication manager Lisa Harrison, who says the cheerful atmosphere in the building \u201csurprises everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is the latest example of prison buildings\u00a0in the Netherlands being repurposed, often in socially useful ways. Just 20km away, in Haarlem, the former De Koepel prison is being converted into a multi-purpose site to include student accommodation and social housing \u2013 answering a national shortage of both.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the province of Drenthe, the National Prison Museum<\/a>, housed since 2005 in\u00a0a former penal colony, aims to open up a nuanced conversation on crime and punishment, as well as sharing its gruesome history.<\/p>\n

Quirkier uses have also been found. Utrecht\u2019s Wolvenplein created a city beach within the steep walls of its exercise yard, while \u2212 before its demolition \u2212 Amsterdam\u2019s Bijlmerbajes provided employment for some of the asylum seekers temporarily housed there, by converting 15 cells into a Syrian hammam.<\/p>\n

As the UK embarks on its largest prison building programme in over a century<\/a>, with prisoner numbers almost doubling in the last\u00a030 years<\/a>, the prison population in the Netherlands is going in the opposite direction. Apart from a small rise in the past three years, it has otherwise been steadily shrinking. Today, the incarceration rate per capita is half the UK\u2019s; there are far fewer repeat offenders; and reported crime continues to decline. At times, the Netherlands has even resorted to importing convicts from abroad to fill its empty cells and keep some prisons open.<\/p>\n

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Plans for a cinema at De Koepel.\u00a0 Image: Architechenbureau J. Van Stigt B.V.<\/p><\/div>\n

But while the British government dishes out the most life sentences in Europe<\/a>, under the leadership of a prime minister who says he is keen to see hi-vis chain gangs introduced, the Dutch see the benefits of a less punitive approach. (Only around 30 people there are serving life sentences.)<\/p>\n

Reeling from the Nazi occupation during the second world war, the Netherlands had\u00a0\u201ca strong sense of the dangers of an overbearing state and the horrors of imprisonment\u201d, explains Francis Pakes, a Dutch national and professor of criminology at the University of Portsmouth. This meant that prison sentences were used more sparingly than before the war, and detainees were usually treated with greater humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the UK, to be tough on crime is framed as a solution against a threat of disorder,\u201d says Pakes. \u201cWhereas in the Netherlands [historically], crime was just something the system had to respond to.\u201d\u00a0The decriminalisation of soft drug use and sex work (in 1976 and 2000 respectively) reflects this pragmatic approach, while investment in youth intervention schemes, electronic tagging, and residential care for offenders with addictions and mental health problems has promoted rehabilitation and minimised prison time.<\/p>\n

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A spiral staircase at Haarlem’s De Koepel jail, before its transformation.
Image Olaf Kramer<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIn the Netherlands [compared to the UK], the prisons are \u2212 by and large \u2212 better maintained, better staffed, more spacious and more decent places,\u201d explains Pakes. These are all factors that, studies have shown, make offenders\u2019 successful reintegration into mainstream society more likely.<\/p>\n

Low rates of poverty, high social security\u00a0and a relatively unmaterialistic culture \u2013 in the Netherlands, being unshowy about wealth and living simply are generally valued traits \u2013 all play a role in reducing crime. And, the lack of minimum sentencing means that lengthy jail spells \u2013 which Dutch research links to higher reoffending rates \u2013 are rare.<\/p>\n

Amsterdam-based musician, author and social entrepreneur Rivelino Rigters knows at first hand the downside of incarceration. Fatherless and seeking the approval of older\u00a0boys, he got caught up in drug-selling and theft, and was serving his first prison sentence at the age of 13. But prison only enhanced his criminal connections, he says. \u201cI actually came out worse than before I went in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLocking someone up is not a way to solve the problem,\u201d Rigters insists. \u201cSometimes it only makes it bigger because, for some people, crime was either their last resort or there was no other way to make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Musician, author and social entrepreneur Rivelino Rigters has spent time in jail but now mentors prisoners. Image: Hazazah Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

Instead, Rigters\u2019 organisation Criminal Minded<\/a>, which mentors current and ex-prisoners to access the skills and networks they need\u00a0to rebuild their lives, is typical of the more personalised approaches now being trialled. It focuses on offenders\u2019 \u201cstrengths, talents and possibilities\u201d and \u201cwhat needs to be healed in order for them to take positive steps forward\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prison-based model of justice may have served its time, believes Pakes. \u201cWhat you find in the Netherlands when you talk to senior police officers, prosecutors or judges, is that very few people have anything positive to say about the effect of imprisonment,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody really believes it works.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now know better that if you want to turn those lives around, simply being punitive is not going to cut it,\u201d Pakes concludes. \u201cIt needs something much more wholesome than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three Repurposed Dutch Prisons<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. A night in the nick \u2013 the hotel and restaurant<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In the city of Roermond, buildings now occupied by the Hotel Het Arresthuis<\/a> and its Michelin-starred restaurant Damianz formed a state prison from 1863 to\u00a02007. It detained mostly drug smugglers and illegal immigrants in its final years. Grouped around original cast iron stairways and balconies, the rooms range from \u2018comfort cells\u2019 to a luxurious suite.<\/p>\n

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    Hotel Het Arresthuis in Roermond. Image: Hotel Het Arresthuis.<\/p><\/div>\n

      \n
    1. The lock-up that\u2019s looking up \u2013 the business centre and library<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The moated entrance and formidable spires of the Blokhuispoort prison<\/a> in the city of Leeuwarden now welcome visitors to a cultural business centre. It\u2019s designed to boost investment in a province with the lowest GDP nationally. The Alibi hostel, with its barred windows, offers affordable accommodation, while the transformation of the prison chapel into the city\u2019s central library was completed earlier this year.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Gluttons for punishment \u2013 the escape game<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Beneath the gigantic panopticon of Boschpoort penitentiary, a cast of 80 actors lead 400 \u2018inmates\u2019 in orange scrubs through an adrenaline-filled escape experience. Elsewhere in and around the building \u2013 rebranded the FutureDome<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 spaces have been used as a meeting centre for people with autism, temporary housing, a pop-up theatre and an ice rink.<\/p>\n

        Go to Original \u2013 positive.news<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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