Violent incidents commonplace in psychiatric prisons: report
Violence and aggression are commonplace within the walls of the psychiatric prison institutions in the Netherlands. A serious incident occurs in one of the 13 such institutions more than once a week, the Telegraaf reports based on figures requested from the Ministry of Justice and Security.
The Ministry only provided the Telegraaf with figures on incidents of violence among patients themselves and of incidents of violence by patients directed at staff resulting in serious injury. Since the start of 2017, there has been 169 such incidents, according to the newspaper.
Among them was an incident in which patient Michel T. stabbed a 25-year-old employee to death with a pair of scissors in the Kijvelanden clinic in Portugaal. After this incident, the Healthcare Inspectorate concluded that the workload in the clinic is too high, which meant that there was tool little supervision on the use of medicines and the lending of dangerous objects.
The 196 serious incidents prompted multiple investigations by the Justice and Security Inspectorate, including at the institutions De Rooyse Wissel, Roosenburg, De Woenselse Poort, De Kijvelanden, FPC De Oostvaarderskliniek, Van Mesdag, Pompekliniek, and Van Der Hoeven-clinic.
These incidents do not include milder forms of aggression, drug related incidents, or the discovery of weapons or pornographic material.
