Christian Democrats want double punishment for repeat offenders

The CDA wants to be harsher towards criminals in the Netherlands, party leader Sybrand Buma said on Friday. For one thing, the Christian Democratic party wants repeat offenders to have their punishments doubled, NOS reports. The party also wants convicts to serve more of their prison sentences. Currently a prisoner can qualify for early release after serving two thirds of his sentence. The CDA wants to change this so that criminals can only leave prison once their sentence is almost completely served. Short sentences of two years or less must be served completely. "We have to protect the well meaning Dutch against people who want to do harm", Buma said. He believes security will be a big election issue next year. This is one point on the CDA's campaign for the elections in March next year. The party's full election campaign will be published next week.