Dr. Neals J. Chitan
An article published on May 31, 2017 by columnist Chris Weller in the London-based “Independent” publication was captioned “Dutch prisons closing because country is so safe.” In his article, Weller reported that 19 prisons were already closed in 2013, and that 5 more were slated for closing again by summer of 2017, just four years after.
Wow!! Shutting down 23 prisons in any country is nothing but amazing by my take! And so, as a social skill consultant and crime reduction specialist, this caption drives me to take a closer look at what might be the mitigating factors rendering this outstanding and unbelievable results. You see, to say prisons are closing, is one issue to be looked at, but to say, because the country is “so safe” is another issue to be scrutinized.
Closing prisons can be because of a government’s financial inability to keep them open. Closing prisons can be because of complex safety issues or can also be because of health hazards, and not necessarily because the country is so safe!
However, in his article, Weller offered three reasons he saw as contributing factors to this prison-closing euphoria in the Netherlands. He pointed out the Dutch relaxed drug laws, the emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment and the use of electronic monitoring of offenders so they can re-enter the work force.
As we take a closer look at these reasons tendered, can we objectively say that it’s because the Netherlands is “so safe” that the jails are closed? For a country to be deemed “so safe” means that there is a disproportionately low rate of criminal occurrences, and the reasons here do not indicate that. What we see here is different attitude and method of dealing with crime which produce fewer criminal charges.
The Netherlands has always been known to lead the way in liberality on social issues. Dutch drug policies led the way in the latter part of the 20th century with decriminalizing laws on marijuana and other so-called “soft drugs,” even making them available in coffee shops. The same drug behavior that will land someone in another country in jail, will see a Hollander enjoying the delight of his drugs on the patio of a coffee shop in public or at home.
So, the question is, “Is it the change in criminal behavior that caused the closure of prisons, or is it the reclassification of the behavior that renders it non-criminal?” Let’s say for argument sake, that in a two- month period, two hundred men were caught breaking the law, doing so-called “soft drugs,” that would be two hundred offenders to be arrested, charged, remanded and incarcerated.
Now, if the law is removed, there is no reason to arrest, charge, remand and incarcerate those involved for doing drugs, because the need for the prison does not exist anymore. Of course, we can therefore boast that we have shut down a prison, but has the drug behavior and all its social implications changed? I think not!! Indeed, the crime stats on drugs will look better because the drug users are all having a great time on the streets, while in another country with stringent drug laws, these two hundred men would be incarcerated, sending their prison stats way up and even planning on building new prisons.
In addition to very relaxed drug policies in the Netherlands are its equally very relaxed prostitution laws, which make men even more vulnerable. From our work in prisons in Canada, the USA, the UK and across the Caribbean, I can most assuredly testify that men are more susceptible to incarceration. In any given prison that houses male and female inmates, the male count represents up to 95% of the population.
On Saturday, I visited Her Majesty Prison in Basseterre, St. Kitts, to run our regular social rehabilitation and reintegration program-Operation Another Chance, with the inmates scheduled for release. The chart on the wall at the entrance indicated that at present there are 147 males and 8 females incarcerated there, making it a population of about 94.5% men.
As we again contemplate the reasons for closing of Dutch prisons, we can throw in the prostitution argument in the mix. Since most prostitutes are females who are solicited by mostly men (Johns), if prostitution is now legal, that’s another group of men who would have been going to jail in countries where prostitution is illegal, but whose similar behavior in the Netherlands would not have them incarcerated. Wow!! Can’t you see that its not necessarily the lack of behavior, but the classification of the behavior that renders it a crime or not? To incarcerate or not? To shut down a prison or not?
It therefore suggests that, on the flip side of the coin, if nations of the Caribbean enact similar laws on drugs and prostitution, and retroactively release inmates doing time for these crimes, their prison population will be drastically decreased too, thus joining the “Prison-Shutting Down” boast. Of course, crime will be exponentially decreased on paper, not that the anti-social behaviors and their impact would not exist and plague our communities, but they would now be legit activities that break no laws, therefore no prison time.
The over liberalization of the 21st century society is creating new norms and a wide spectrum of social fluidity, driven by internet connectivity. The Caribbean nations are stuck in a debate regarding the decriminalization and legalizing of marijuana and other so-called “soft drugs.” It must be noted that the larger countries with their enormous demographics and population are unable to deal with the magnitude of their social issues, political pressures and civic mobilization surrounding these issues, so they enact laws to pacify the majority. These policies that may be used to quell the firing of special interest groups sometimes have dire social repercussions, but they are able to buttress the undesirable outcomes with their big national budgets.
As smaller nations which are heavily dependant on their tourism product for survival, Caribbean islands may be tempted to follow suit and enact laws to match the social liberality of the larger homelands of their tourist patrons. In an attempt to keep them happy and the cruise ships coming, we may try to offer the same social environment they are accustomed to, but do we have the financial and human resource power as the big economies to plug the gaping holes that may result? It may take most of that same tourism income we earn to stem the tide of social dysfunctions that may result, rendering us in the Caribbean as counter productive.
The manageable population and demographical sizes of the Caribbean islands surely make it easier to enforce and monitor reasonable social policies in a more intimate and community-based manner. The population sizes in the Caribbean also make it easier to implement target focused community crime prevention programs while also delivering prison rehabilitative and after care programs, which we notice is a feather in the Dutch cap also.
We do not have to unduly join the Netherland’s boast of shutting down prisons when we cannot absorb the social and financial liabilities that may come with comparable legislations to that of the Netherlands. However, we can learn a crucially important lesson from their approach of emphasizing prevention and rehabilitation over punishment.
If we can empower and inspire our people (with emphasis on males) to become more successful by helping them discover their innate talents, planning their future and unlocking their potentials, while at the same time successfully rehabilitating those with an inclination or involved in crime, we too can justifiably close down our prisons in the Caribbean, and do the victory lap!
It will be our pleasure to showcase to you our copyrighted EDER© four-dimensional approach to sustainable crime reduction, if you are interested in achieving that goal on a domestic, community and national level.
