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Juvenile Prison Conditions

20:31 recording · EN · 6 speakers

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Brief overview

Staff shortages leave detained youngsters locked up instead of getting the schooling and treatment they are owed.

  1. A legal day programme that rarely happensBoys have a right to 77 hours of school, treatment and activities a week, but often sit 23 hours in the cell instead.
  2. Staff shortage is the recurring causeIt is code black in juvenile detention too: qualified people are hard to recruit and, under the pressure, hard to keep.
  3. Complaints answered with money, not careThere are so many complaints that compensation is now paid automatically, while young people say they want their schooling and treatment, not cash.
Executive Summary AI
  • A child care worker opens the episode warning that the youth prisons are breeding the next generation of adult criminals, because young people who should be treated, educated and kept in contact with others are not getting that help.0:18
  • Rachelle Verdel of Nieuwsuur drove to the Hartenborst institution with Dave, whose son Damien spent about four and a half years inside, and he describes it as a punishment within a punishment: 23 hours in the cell, school cancelled because there is no staff to take him there, visits cut short, and a treatment that never really came into effect.2:03
  • Marcel Compagne, a member of the supervision commission for the youth prison in Lelystad who also represents the commissions of all six youth prisons, brought a folder full of complaints showing the boys do not get the 77 hours of day programme they are legally entitled to and are too often in their room.7:02
  • A year ago three state inspections sent the State Secretary an alarming letter about the acute personnel shortages and the safety of both the young people and the employees, and the inspection says that a year later nothing has been solved.11:09
  • As a possible way out, experts point to electronic supervision: more than 80% of the boys in detention are there for less than three months and could be guided at home with an ankle band, while the ministry expects to present its structural measures in 2027.15:53
Key Quote
“We breed our own adult criminals.”
— Child care worker0:00
Key Quote
“Too little education and spending 23 hours a day in your cell.”
— Marco Geitenbeek0:46
Key Quote
“From the beginning, I was so afraid that I didn't want to submit any complaints. I thought I'd do an extra pack of cigarettes.”
— Detainee5:01