Lawyers against laptop ban in all Dutch prisons
The Dutch Judicial Institutions Agency (DJI) has banned lawyers from taking laptops, mobile phones, or USB drives into any of the Nehterlands’ prisons. The Dutch Bar Association (NOvA) is concerned by this step, calling it “unacceptable and unworkable,” AD reports.
Until now, the ban on lawyers taking laptops, phones, or USB drives with them when they visit clients only applied to the high-security prison in Vught. The DJI imposed the ban there in 2021 after Ridouan Taghi’s lawyer, Youssef T., was arrested for enabling the criminal kingpin to continue running his criminal organization from prison by passing along information and instructions. The DJI has now expanded the ban to all Dutch prisons.
The NOvA is unhappy with this step, calling it “unacceptable and unworkable” because it means that defense attorneys won’t have easy access to their clients’ files when visiting them in prison. “Criminal files, but also probation reports, for example, are provided digitally to lawyers. Prohibiting lawyers from bringing their laptops and other digital data carriers to meetings with detained clients makes providing adequate legal assistance virtually impossible,” the NOvA said.
Lawyers can print out these documents and take paper copies with them, but searching these documents for the needed information is much more tedious and time-consuming without a laptop’s search function. Physical printouts could also increase the chance of data breaches.
The lawyers urged the DJI to maintain the “yes, unless” rule and refrain from tightening it to “no, unless” when it comes to digital devices in prisons.
