Attorneys protest prison surveillance rules, warn of standstill in criminal proceedings

A group of 46 criminal defense attorneys has announced that it will suspend visits to clients held under the most restrictive prison regimes. In a letter sent to court presidents and chief prosecutors, they protest that new, tightened legislation, particularly affecting the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught, no longer allows them to speak with their clients in confidence. As a result of the protest, criminal proceedings and their preparations risk coming to a standstill.

Such communication, they argue, is “a cornerstone of legal assistance.” The letter was drafted by lawyers Sander Janssen and Laura Versluis and signed by 44 fellow attorneys.

With the Penitentiary Principles Act coming into force on November 1, high-security prisons now face sharply increased security measures. The attorneys argue that the far-reaching visual surveillance, especially, prevents them from communicating with their clients in confidence.

In recent months, multiple attempts have been made to obtain greater clarity about how this monitoring “would be implemented in practice,” the attorneys write, including through the Netherlands Bar Association (NOvA). But the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) have, they say, left “many questions completely unanswered.”

According to a message the NOvA sent to criminal lawyers last week, there are still insufficient safeguards “to ensure confidentiality in practice,” a conclusion attorneys say they have also drawn from their own visits. They further emphasize that there is “no clear information” about how video and audio recordings are stored or deleted.

These stringent rules are enforced not only in the EBI but also in prisons with an Intensive Supervision Unit (AIT). Lawyers say that in both the EBI and AITs, cameras maintain a “constant view” of the faces of attorneys and their clients, and covering one’s mouth while speaking is forbidden.

The lawyers state in their letter that halting visits to clients “will almost certainly have significant effects on the scheduling of cases for suspects housed in the EBI or AIT units.”

They express hope that this “highly undesirable situation will not last long” and that they can return to work promptly, once the ministry and DJI address their “serious concerns.”