Speakers
Dr Maaike de Boois
Plenary
Since the fall of 2023, there has been an acute capacity shortage in the Dutch prison system. This shortage is caused, among other things, by an increase in the length of sentences, a sharp increase in the stay in prisons of juveniles and persons who must move on to forensic care and a staff shortage. Although acute and medium-term measures are now being initiated, the Department of Justice and Security has assigned to draft structural measures. The aim of these is to adequately execute imposed sentences in the long term (next 10 years). The execution of sentences is an interplay between the type of sentence (or sanction) and the possibilities to execute them. It is therefore a broad issue in which the entire criminal justice chain plays a role: from the imposition of appropriate sentences, timely execution of sentences, to the prevention of recidivism and working on resocialization. The broad social task underlying this is working towards a safe and just society.
