5 Jails To Be Closed In Netherlands as Dropping Crime Rates Leave Cells Empty

Discussion in 'The Cocktail Lounge' started by Rainman, Mar 23, 2016.

  1. Rainman

    Rainman Senior Investor

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    http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archiv...to-close-as-falling-crime-leaves-cells-empty/
    Strange thing is earlier the government wanted to close 19 prisons but won't because they are "importing" prisoners from countries with a surplus.
    First time I'm hearing of countries importing prisoners to keep jails full.
     
  2. Alex

    Alex Senior Investor

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    Good news for the Netherlands, and I hope it will happen in other countries. As the population does decreases so does the criminal population. In the case of terrorists being jailed, many do blow themselves up to prevent being caught, and as that is a major criminal activity right now there will be less of these criminals.
     
  3. Rainman

    Rainman Senior Investor

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    There has to be a reason why crime rates are dropping in Holland. Other countries plagued by crime could use Netherlands as a case study, find out what they did right, do what the Dutch did and we'll probably see crime dropping all over the world. Maybe the U.S could start by decriminalizing "soft drugs." It could reduce the prison population.
     
  4. Alex

    Alex Senior Investor

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    Perhaps as a Schengen country people have dispersed to other countries? What has happened in the UK, criminals from Poland and Latvia can start afresh in another EU country without the new country even knowing of their history. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30997004

    In this case, the man murdered his wife in Latvia, served his sentence and moved to the UK.

    "Zalkalns, who was working as a labourer on a building site in Isleworth, had been convicted of murdering his wife in Latvia in 1998."

    "Following his conviction for murdering his wife in Latvia, he was released from prison in 2005 and arrived legally in the UK in 2007, police said."

    "No checks were made to see if Zalkalns had any overseas convictions because it was not Met policy to do so, the force said.
    However, detectives said even if the conviction had been known about it was "very unlikely" Zalkalns would have been deported."

    Maybe the Dutch criminals have gone elsewhere to start again with no record? That's another EU flaw?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2016
  5. Rainman

    Rainman Senior Investor

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    Should the criminals move elsewhere and commit crimes in whichever country they move to then the EU's free movement of people policies are flawed. But if a criminal moves away to get a fresh start elsewhere then it's not that bad.
     
  6. rz3300

    rz3300 Guest

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    Well talk about a situation where you just want to combine two problems and have a solution. Here we are constantly reminded of our problem which is the complete opposite...not enough jail cells, which of course might say something else in itself, but I guess that is a different issue. It is pretty interesting though, and certainly has come implications for some further research.
     
  7. TaurusHorns

    TaurusHorns Well-Known Member

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    And yet people here still seem to be so cruel towards criminals without realizing that they are a product of their environment. The reason this place has such inflated prisoner numbers is because the culture wants it to exist, creates the context, creates the problem but never creates the solution, just the rug to sweep it all under
     
  8. ScooterBrandon

    ScooterBrandon Senior Investor

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    The long term trend of criminal activity in the developed world is largely downwards.
    As you educate people, provide them access to the basic necessities to live, give them a growing economy to find work in, stop treating medical issues with the criminal justice system and develop more enlightened ways to deal with criminality the propensity for people to engage in vice diminishes.
    This is proof of that.
     
  9. briannagodess

    briannagodess Well-Known Member

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    Wouldn't all governments and countries love to have this problem? Lol. In any case, declining rates of crimes is a great indication that a country is progressing towards a brighter future. And I just wish that in the future, my country would also have lesser crime rates and lesser needs for prisons. That would be the day that I would be extremely proud of our government.

    As I read the article though, I went through the comments section. It seems like some people from the Netherlands are actually claiming that there are less crimes because the authorities are not investigating them well enough. So yeah, that's another side of it. Have you guys known about this issue as well?

    I do know that the Netherlands is far safer than most countries so I don't know about the validity of these comments...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2016
  10. erook7878

    erook7878 Well-Known Member

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    That is certainly a good problem to have. I would imagine a big part of that is because they have lax drug laws that don't imprison people for non-violent drug offenses like they do here in the United States. Our prisons are packed to the brim.
     

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