How would you like to stay for a night or two in a Dutch prison? No, not as a criminal, but as a guest. Recently, the Netherlands has been converting some of their prisons into hotels and apartments because they are struggling to fill them.
It doesn't mean that their law enforcement authorities are not doing their job effectively. It's just that their approach to resolving crime focus more on rehabilitation than incarceration.
“The Dutch have a deeply ingrained pragmatism when it comes to regulating law and order,” René van Swaaningen, a professor of criminology at Erasmus School of Law in Rotterdam told The New York Times. “Prisons are very expensive. Unlike the United States, where people tend to focus on the moral arguments for imprisonment, the Netherlands is more focused on what works and what is effective.”
Read the rest over at Amusing Planet
Image: Het Arresthuis
I suppose this can only happen when your prison system isn't beholden to shareholders.