Escaping from prison is not a crime in the Netherlands, but that could soon change

Escaping from prison and psychiatric prison will become a punishable offense in the Netherlands, outgoing Minister Franc Weerwind for Legal Protection announced. He plans to submit a legislative amendment to that effect in the summer, the Telegraaf reports.

Helping someone escape from prison or the psychiatric institution they’ve been sentenced to is already a criminal offense in the Netherlands. But the act of escaping itself is not. Once caught, escapees are just returned to the penitentiary institute to serve their existing sentence.

This bill has been in the making for five years. In 2019, then-Legal Protection Minister Franc Weerwind promised to make escaping punishable, under pressure from the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. The MPs wanted a maximum sentence of four years in prison for escaping. But nothing came of it. “Those involved” told the Telegraaf that the Ministry of Justice and Security gave little priority to the topic.

Weerwind recently told parliament that he does not know why the bill has remained shelved for so long. “I owe you that answer. I know that it has been picked up and I am working on it,” he said. The bill should be ready around summer. “I share the view that it is illogical that escaping from detention is not punishable while helping another person to flee is.”