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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:13 am
Time: 2:13 am
Results for prisoners (europe)
1 results foundAuthor: Allen, Rob Title: Reducing the Use of Imprisonment: What Can We Learn from Europe? Summary: The familiar story of a rising prison population across Europe, and a general ‘punitive turn’ in Western democracies, now requires a new chapter. Since 2004, European countries have seen a divergence in prison numbers, with the Netherlands, Germany and some others successfully managing to reduce their prison populations, effectively tracking their falling crime levels, whereas England and Wales, along with France, have not achieved this. In England and Wales the prison population has continued to rise despite a clear and sustained reduction in crime. Since 2004 the total numbers incarcerated in the Netherlands has fallen from more than 20,000 to less than 15,000. In 2009 the Dutch Ministry of Justice announced plans to close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. They expect the number of prisoners to continue to decline and to average 8,875 by 2015. The Netherlands now uses the spare capacity to lease space at Tilburg jail to house 500 prisoners from Belgium, whose prisons are severely overcrowded. Alongside the Netherlands, Germany, too, has seen a significant decrease in numbers in custody since the middle of last decade. The aim of this paper is to look at features of the criminal justice systems in operation in these countries and to analyse changes in prison numbers in order to see whether any lessons might usefully be considered in England and Wales. There is a particular focus on Germany and the Netherlands as these are countries which share certain similarities with the UK. All three are highly urbanised countries with a GDP per capita well above the EU average, although the UK has recently had higher rates of unemployment and a higher proportion of citizens at risk of poverty and leaving education early than either the Netherlands or Germany. Spending on courts, prosecution and legal aid is similar in the UK and Netherlands, and trust in justice institutions is broadly comparable. Both Labour and the Conservatives have looked to the Netherlands for some of their ‘welfare to work’ agendas. Details: London: Criminal Justice Alliance, 2012. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 11, 2012 at: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/CJA_ReducingImprisonment_Europe.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Europe URL: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/CJA_ReducingImprisonment_Europe.pdf Shelf Number: 125548 Keywords: InmatesPrison PopulationPrisoners (Europe) |