To help shoulder the burden of $340 per criminal per day, the Dutch government is proposing two bills requiring prisoners to pay fees for their jail time as well as investigation and court fees.
Each convicted prisoner reportedly costs the Netherlands the equivalent of around $340 per day; with approximately 12,100 current inmates, that’s more than $4 million each day. To help shoulder that burden, the Dutch government is proposing two bills requiring prisoners to pay fees for their jail time as well as investigation and court fees.
Following the lead of other European countries, Justice Ministry spokesman Wiebe Alkema said, “it’s only fair that not all the costs should be shouldered by the state and society.”
Under the first bill, criminals, including those under psychiatric care, or the parents of juveniles in detention would pay just over $20 per day for their accommodations for a maximum of 2 years amounting to nearly $16,000 per person.
The second bill says prisoners would pay part of the court and investigation costs involved with their individual cases and convictions.
Critics say the bills violate human rights and the state should pay all prisoner costs. Pieter Vleeming from a Dutch prisoner rights group asks, “Now you want to send a prisoner who has no money, who has lost everything while in jail, with this debt into the outside world?”
What are your thoughts?
