Amid Carceral Crises in US, UK, the Dutch Close Prisons Due to Lack of Detainees

[jpx7]

The article is sourced from the UK perspective, but is obviously relevant to the US, whose carceral crisis is even more concerning and acute:

As prison populations surge in the UK, with overcrowded cells and repeat offenders, the opposite in happening in the Netherlands.

The country is actually to close eight prisons because of a lack of criminals, the Dutch justice ministry has announced.

Declining crime rates in the Netherlands mean that although the country has the capacity for 14,000 prisoners, there are only 12,000 detainees, reported the nrc.nl.

The decrease is expected to continue, the ministry said, with Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak saying that natural redundancy and other measures should counter any forced lay-offs.

While I won't argue for one-to-one correspondences between the US and the Netherlands, they're obviously doing something right; moreover, despite the intense lobbying by the prison–industrial complex in this country, our nation absolutely must make this sort of trend – a major decease of prisoners and, thereby, prisons – a major policy goal.

 

[sturg33]

No way dude, the land of the free USA has it way better... Where we let our cops shoot people dead because they MAY have marijuana on them.

 

[Dalyn]

No way dude, the land of the free USA has it way better... Where we let our cops shoot people dead because they MAY have marijuana on them.

And they say marijuana isn't addictive. Changes my whole view on all of this.

 

[goldfly]

Going to the Netherlands changed my political view more than any other country i have visited