How the Dutch Custodial Institution Agency made humane corrections the core element in a new contract for food for prisoners.
A new contract – a new chance
In 2022, our contract for food in prisons expired. In the previous years, we reconsidered our approach to prison food. Since European procurement laws force our organisation to limit the length of our contracts, the companies have a possibility to apply to a public tender, in this case every eight years. This gives our organisation the possibility to improve our food service and correct mistakes made in the past.
In 2020, we started the public procurement process to contract three new suppliers for the contract period 2022-2030. Last year, we implemented this new contract. In this presentation we want to tell you how we changed our perspective on food in prison.
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Drs. Wolter van der Vlist
Policy advisor on procurement, Dutch Custodial Institution Agency, Netherlands
Drs. Wolter van der Vlist, policy advisor on procurement, Dutch Custodial Institution Agency
Wolter works 10 years in the Dutch prison system and is with his team responsible for procurement policy called procurement with impact. To engage suppliers with the special purpose of the organisation is our main focus. Last three years he worked on a new contract for food in prison.
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Drs. Marianne Vos
Prison Director, Dutch Custodial Institution Agency, Netherlands
Drs. Marianne Vos, prison director, PI Heerhugowaard, Dutch Custodial Institution Agency. Marianne works for 28 years in the Dutch prison system at different locations. She started her career at the headquarter in Den Haag. Actually she is director at the Prison in Heerhugowaard with 340 prisoners from which most serve long or life sentences.
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An-Sofie Vanhouche
Professor, VUB, Belgium
An-Sofie Vanhouche holds a PhD in Criminology and works as assistant professor in the Criminology Department. She obtained her Master's degree in 2011 with a thesis entitled: “Innocently imprisoned: The Consequences for People who are Acquitted after Being Remanded in Custody”. In 2017, she successfully defended her PhD, 'Prison Cuisines in Europe. A Comparative Study of Prison Food Systems in Belgium, Tilburg and Denmark', jointly supervised at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Southern Denmark. An-Sofie currently teaches several courses as assistant professor on penology and comparative criminology. Her main research interest lies in the lived experience of imprisonment, participatory research, prison foodways, prison education, and comparative penology.
