Women in prison in the Netherlands

Summary

INTRODUCTION

PRISONS FOR WOMEN

A decade ago (2004) there were five prisons for women in the Netherlands with a capacity of around 900 cells. At present (2014) there are three prisons for women with a capacity of around 500 cells. The three prisons are called Ter Peel, Nieuwersluis and Zwolle. Ter Peel is both a remand house (125 places) and a prison with normal security (133 places), minimal security (9 places) and limited security (7 places). In this prison a mother-child unit exists with capacity for five mothers with young children. Furthermore, there is a bed-and-breakfast facility where children up to 16 years of age can spend a night and stay with their mothers at the weekend. Nieuwersluis is also both a remand house (154 places) and a prison with normal (48 places) and limited (18 places) security levels. In Nieuwersluis there is a mother-child unit for four women. Zwolle is a remand house (100 places) with special units for women with psychiatric problems (20 places) and units for persistent offenders (32 places).

Women in prison form around 6% of the total prison population in the Netherlands. In times when the total prison population was substantially smaller than nowadays, the effect was that the prison facilities and provisions for female prisoners were less than for male prisoners. There was almost no possibility for differentiation among female prisoners: there were no prisons tailored for women, and no open prisons existed for women. The situation today is different. Facilities and provisions are equal for both male and female prisoners, although some minor differences still exist, e.g. libraries and gyms in women's prisons are smaller than in men's prisons.

THE BANGKOK RULES

In this chapter we deal with some gender-specific characteristics and needs of women in prison against the background of the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders, the so-called Bangkok Rules, unanimously adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2010. The Bangkok Rules were an initiative by the Thai Government and inspired by the Project on Enhancing Lives of Female Inmates (ELFI) that was initiated by HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand.

The rationale of the Bangkok Rules is twofold:

- prisons are designed predominantly by and for men; and