Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

[trusty elf]

Last edited Sun Jun 30, 2013, 08:25 AM - Edit history (1)

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

http://vorige.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals


America, beware! This is what happens when you're soft on crime.


Sorry, this is from 2009. Still interesting though.

[Scootaloo]

1. Oh, those poor prisons!

[trusty elf]

2. Those soshulist you're-a-peons have no entrepreneurial spirit.

They should privatize 'em and criminalize more behavior.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. The Netherlands sounds like a cool country

And even before the existence of the Netherlands, the Dutch had some pretty progressive ideas, like religious tolerance. Because the Dutch didn't try to peddle their religion to the Japanese, they were the only Europeans who were allowed to trade with Japan during its period of closure (1630-1854).

[MisterP]

16. well, that's just 'cause the bakufu didn't want the daimyo converting and having independent

outside connections
plus, they had this whole Matteo Ricci-Ferdinand Verbiest thing going on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangaku
history's fun!

[Art_from_Ark]

19. Well, gee, maybe they knew about what the Spaniards and Portuguese

were doing to indigenous peoples in the New World in the name of religion? Or what they were doing in their own countries for that matter? The 1600s were not a pleasant time for most subjects of the Spanish and Portuguese empires.

[MisterP]

20. despite the Iberian enormities in the Americas and Philippines, the shoguns' motives were domestic

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimabara_Rebellion) rather than fending off a full colonial threat
but alas, my specialization is in Latin American history, not world or East Asian

[Art_from_Ark]

21. "Domestic" motives included fending off foreign religious zealots

Having visited the monument to the 26 Martyrs in Nagasaki, I got the impression from locals that religious zealotry on the part of Spaniards and Portuguese played an important role in the expulsion of all Europeans from the main islands, while the Dutch, who didn't proselytize, were given trading privileges on a couple of islands off the coast of Kyushu. Of course, it was complicated, and Japan certainly did not want to become part of either the Spanish or Portuguese empires.

From the Wiki article about the 26 martyrs:

"The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that in the Philippines the Spanish had taken power after converting the population. The government increasingly saw Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Christians. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-six_Martyrs_of_Japan

[trusty elf]

4. The headline sounds almost Onionesque. n/t

[sibelian]

5. It's wonderful.

thank you for posting it. I woke up in an utterly hideous political raaaaarg mood today and this news has cheered me up no end!

[Cirque du So-What]

11. I haven't even finished my first cup of coffee

so it may be awhile before I appreciate this story as good news. As of now, I'm just feeling anger at the private prison-industrial complex in this nation, stupid drug laws and their discriminatory application, and the lack of anything approaching true 'rehabilitation' for the millions behind bars. If I were Dutch, I'd definitely be in a celebratory mood, but this just reminds me of how badly TPTB have fucked up everything in this country.

[sibelian]

18. Well, I don't want to be Pollyanna-ish

but at least things like this provide a model for improvement elsewhere. The prison-industrial complex is delegitimised by systems like this and that's good. I saw news that contracts that some US states had with some private prisons were ending as well... not sure if I coudl find these articles for you quickly, though...

[Cirque du So-What]

10. Doesn't it, though?

In the US, we've been conditioned to view prison as a 'growth industry.' At least since Nixon was in office, I can't recall a politician ever making a suggestion that we put fewer people in prison; it's always a call to build more prisons and put more 'criminals' in them - even though a good percentage of the prison population may be there on drug charges alone.

[burnodo]

6. This could never happen here

those with an economic interest in a large prison population would find ways to arrest people. Uh, I mean find NEW ways to arrest people.

[TexasTowelie]

7. Except for the lieutenant governor of my state.

[trusty elf]

8. We could offer to send them our banksters and war criminals.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Orrex]

9. If we did that, The Netherlands would need to build more prisons.

[SwissTony]

12. This is from 19/5/2009 and is posted in an "archief" (archive).

NRC Handelsblad is a Dutch newspaper, for those who are interested.

[trusty elf]

14. Oh, you're right.

I didn't even notice that.

[Coccydynia]

13. They just didn't grasp the beauty of privatizing the prison system.

[Rain Mcloud]

15. They got weed and good jobs and most importantly good will towards each other

and little of the 'force the facts to fit the narrative' jingoism.
The problem here is that there is a whole series of industries who reap trillions off the backs of the poor.
Guess who bankrolls our representatives?

[ck4829]

17. OMG, these people need to make pot a felony and protesting a bank the same as treason STAT!

K&R.

[elehhhhna]

22. the Netherlands' religious tolerance thing is true, to some extent, but

the Puritans came to America b/c even the Dutch couldn't stand their Puritanical puritannness.

[sibelian]

23. You stayed!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!

[elehhhhna]

24. lol

I was having a diva of doom moment. Just can't quit y'all.

[sibelian]

25. It's allowed.

I nearly joined you in oblivion...