Additional measures due to lack of cells, convicts sent to prison later

Due to the shortage of prison guards, outgoing Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) is taking two additional measures to reduce the pressure on prisons acutely. For instance, people who still have to serve a prison sentence of up to two months will have to do so at a later date. Detainees can also be sent home on Friday if this was actually planned for the weekend or Monday, Weerwind informed the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of parliament.

The measures are temporary and intended to immediately make more cells available for people who are arrested and held in custody. Currently, 330 cells at the Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) are out of use because there are insufficient employees. In addition, police cells are also full, the minister said, because detainees cannot move around and to prisons. "I find this completely undesirable," he wrote in a letter.

Since the beginning of December, Weerwind has also taken other measures. For example, so-called self-reporters will no longer be called up for the time being. These are people who have been convicted and are allowed to wait in freedom until they have to serve their sentence. According to the outgoing Minister, the number of self-reporters has already increased to approximately 2,000.

In July, it will be examined whether the "emergency actions," as the minister calls them, can be brought to an end. He would prefer to do this to prevent too many people from having their sentences postponed, which will have to be overtaken later, and to prevent impunity. He emphasized that imposed punishments must always be carried out.

That is why Weerwind has more measures in store. For instance, he wants to make electronic supervision at the end of a prison sentence possible in specific cases and allow more detainees to serve part of their sentence in a limited security department, where detainees are partly allowed to go outside.

NSC MP and former judge Judith Uitermark, however, disagrees with Weerwind. "If the judge imposes a prison sentence, it must be carried out. With the measure to send detainees home early with an ankle bracelet, the minister is tampering with the judge's sentence. This really cannot and should not be done in a constitutional state."With this measure, he undermines the judge's authority. He then attacks the principles of our constitutional state, which is based on the separation of powers. This is very bad" she said. As a result, Uitermark requested an emergency debate.

There are almost 1,100 vacancies at DJI out of 16,000 full-time jobs.