NCJ Number
158667
Date Published
1995
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Although corrections policy in the Netherlands has long been characterized as moderate and humane, during the last decade or so the preventive and welfare approaches of the country have been under severe pressure from the rationale of repressive social control.
Abstract
As a result, custodial sanctions have become longer, and small custodial units have been replaced by large institutions focusing on punishment. Four white papers published between 1982 and 1994 indicate the fundamental shift to a process of bifurcation in sanctioning involving incapacitation for those considered real criminals and community-based corrections for those not yet considered impossible to rehabilitate. Half the prison inmates have been accused or sentenced for a property crime, 20 percent for drug law offenses, 15 percent for violent crimes, and 5 percent for sex offenses. More than half of all offenses are estimated to be drug-related. Most inmates are male, but the percentage of female inmates is increasing. Probation, long based on a social work model, is now considered mainly a service for the prosecution. The goal of community corrections has changed from being an alternative to custody to being a sanction based on retribution and discipline. These changes make it clear that a sociocultural attitude change has occurred in the Netherlands. The main problem with current Dutch penal policy seems to be that it is based on factors such as fear of crime and suffering of victims that lack intrinsic limits; these factors can lead to law enforcement without limits. Note and 24 references