Yesterday I went to the monumental Dome prison, in the Dutch city of Haarlem, to see a movie. Inaugurated in 1901, this enormous panopticon-style construction has become one of more than 20 Dutch prisons that have closed in the last ten years. It is not the only prison that has ended up serving much more pleasant purposes. In this case, a cultural center.
In the last 20 years, the prison population in the Netherlands has been reduced by more than 40%. A model that the current British Minister for Prisons, James Timpson, has called a source of inspiration for his country. At the other end of the spectrum, the United Kingdom has the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe and is experiencing an unprecedented prison crisis.
#Netherlands #prisons #emptying #world #learn
