“This is someone who committed 62 bank robberies,” says editor-in-chief Paul Grijpma, looking at his loudly ringing telephone. “Hey Tony. Good morning man!”
Bonjo lives in a cramped office in the Amsterdam district of Bos en Lommer: a household name in the prison world. Bonjo is the ‘union for prisoners’. If there are many complaints about the food from the prison caterer, Bonjo will ring the bell at the Judicial Institutions Service (DJI). If it turns out that many detainees lose their rented house during detention, Bonjo sets up a system with temporary tenants.
At the same time, Bonjo, founded in 1984, acts as an umbrella organization for 67 small volunteer organizations that focus on detainees and their reintegration. Bonjo . also gives the Bonjo from: the country’s only prison newspaperwhich is published every two months in an edition of eight thousand copies.
The newspaper contains promotional advertisements from criminal lawyers with texts such as “I fight for you” and “Does your lawyer let you down?”. The personals page also catches the eye. Grijpma calls the section ‘Crook is looking for a woman’ that includes both detainees and women from outside. “I would like to build a relationship,” writes Hans, who is still incarcerated until the end of 2023. He is “sporty, but not too crazy” and likes cozy cooking and good food. “I am also spiritually inclined and I have a thing for the number number 3.”
The Bonjo consists of informative articles. The latest edition includes a piece about staff shortages and overcrowded youth prisons, a critical interview with a prison director about mistrust of detainees, a memoriam by lawyer Max Moskowicz and an article about the increased drug smuggling with drones. „We pretend it is the NRC is. No bullshit in the newspaper and no bad pieces either,” says editor-in-chief Grijpma (73), who used to be a reporter for the NOS News worked. The “Toine” who called earlier is one of his editors.
But due to an intervention by the Ministry of Justice and Security, Bonjo, including the newspaper, is in danger of disappearing at the end of this year. The organization runs on the 150,000 euros subsidy that it receives annually from the ministry. And it will be discontinued by 2023. The then minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection, VVD) decided last year to change the subsidy system for volunteer organizations in the prison system.
Instead of receiving a fixed amount, the organizations will be paid per volunteer from next year. The ministry thinks that’s fairer. Currently, 4 million euros in subsidy is divided in fixed amounts between Bonjo and aid organizations Exodus, Gevangenenzorg Nederland and Humanitas. Soon other volunteer organizations will also be able to claim that money. The system change has already been announced in the Government Gazette†
Read an earlier report here: Prison is now really separated from the outside world
For Bonjo, the new subsidy system means the end of the story. Unlike the three aid organisations, Bonjo does not direct volunteers as an umbrella organization and advocate. And so there is no right to money.
“It is raining concerned messages from detainees. They should not think that we will disappear,” says Bonjo director Jaap Brandligt (78). He points out that Bonjo was founded almost forty years ago at the request of the Ministry of Justice to function as an umbrella organization. Since then, Bonjo has grown into a union that stands up for the interests of detainees.
The newspaper plays an important role in highlighting problems in the prison system – such as lack of participation, poor food and exorbitantly expensive prison shops.
A lot of knowledge
The Netherlands has an average of about ten thousand detainees. Because inmates all over the country knock on Bonjo’s door with questions and problems, Bonjo knows exactly what is going on in prison. Because of this knowledge and contacts, Bonjo is regularly engaged by all kinds of parties. “This month I had a conversation with research agency WODC (part of the Ministry of Justice, ed.) that investigates why detainees do not pay their debts. Then they look at us because we know a lot about it.”
Former trade unionist Brandligt mans the office, together with two former detainees who are employed by Bonjo. They are the only three on the payroll. Grijpma also regularly sits down to coordinate the newspaper. Brandligt and Grijpma think that the ministry would rather lose Bonjo than be rich. “We are the pain in the ass of the judiciary,” says Grijpma. “With the subsidy change, the ministry is destroying the most important critic about the prison system and mouthpiece of prisoners,” Brandligt noted.
A spokesman for Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection, D66) states that there is no connection between Bonjo’s critical attitude and the change in the subsidy system. Bonjo is still eligible for a subsidy, provided the conditions that all volunteer organizations must meet are met.
The ministry does not comment on the fact that Bonjo as an umbrella organization cannot meet these subsidy requirements without volunteers. The ministry does emphasize that prisoners can also act against abuses outside of Bonjo. “Many safeguards have been built into the Dutch legal system for the rights of detainees, such as the possibility to appeal to an independent court.”
Now that nothing can be expected from the ministry, Brandligt and Grijpma hope that the House of Representatives will intervene. Brandligt: “In a constitutional state such as the Dutch one, there should be an interest group for prisoners.”
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