Forcing prisoners to pay for incarceration not backed by Senate

The plan to have prisoners pay 16 euros per day for their incarceration, will very likely not go through. The plan does not have enough support in the Eerste Kamer, Senate. Opposition parties D66, CDA and SP indicated that they are against the plan during a debate in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Wednesday, NOS reports. The support of these opposition parties are needed for a majority in the Eerste Kamer. According to the plan, prisoners will have to pay 16 euros per each day that they are imprisoned for a maximum of two years. This amount can reach more than 11 thousand euros. This would be charged to detainees, forensic psychiatric patients and parents of convicted minors. "This is not to make the Netherlands safer, but to fill the state coffers", SP parliamentarian Nine Kooiman said. The CDA is concerned that these high expenses will make prisoners return to crime once they are released. The coalition parties VVD and PvdA and opposition party PVV support the plan.