The Judicial Institutions Agency (DJI) intends to prohibit criminal lawyers, probation staff and other prison visitors to take laptops, tablets or phones with them if they want to speak a prisoner. According to the service, the measure is necessary to combat the ‘increasing’ amount of prohibited items and ‘continuous criminal action’ in prison. It is unknown when the measure would go. The body will talk to the Dutch Bar Association (NOVA) on Thursday.
Due to ‘understaffing and crowds’, according to a DJI spokesperson, it is now not possible to provide ‘hard figures’ about the growth in criminal activities in prisons. In the past, according to the spokesperson, prisoners have abused contact moments. The measure does not only apply to lawyers, she emphasizes.
Lawyers must then ask for permission per prison, per suspect. Impossible
The Nova feels “robbed” by the plan. “We have certainly not received any signals that lawyers are involved in smuggling,” says criminal lawyer Karin de Lange. In addition, the service can already impose a telephone and laptop ban on major safety risks, she says. “So I don’t understand why that is not enough.”
According to the plan, a lawyer can request permission from the prison director to take a laptop with you. “That reasoning is inimitable,” says De Lange. “A laptop is always necessary for a lawyer. In prison, a lawyer wants to be able to check all file pieces.” She finds it unworkable if a lawyer has to dig through tens of thousands of printed pages in search of relevant information. In addition, De Lange states, the system is ‘completely stuck’ if a prison director has to make a decision for each visit or a laptop is allowed to go into the cell.
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Heavily protected
“They have the DJI Taghi-Vrees,” says lawyer Caroline Pronk of Pronk Advosen in Apeldoorn. Criminal Ridouan Taghi passed on messages through his lawyer and uncle Youssef Taghi to Hangers from the heavily protected EBI in Vught. “Because one big criminal contact with the outside world can maintain, everyone must immediately experience the consequences.” The measure is of little use, Pronk thinks. “In Italy you had the famous Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, the one with pizzurismall pieces of paper, his organization Corleonesi continued to lead from prison. “
Because of the ‘smuggling store’ around Taghi, a laptop and telephone ban has been in the EBI since 2021, where Mohammed B. and Willem Holleeder, among others, serve a life sentence. A former Arabic -speaking client of Pronk was also stuck in Vught. “Because I was not allowed to use my laptop and mobile for Google Translate, my law firm had to engage an interpreter every time at the expense of society.”
In Italy, a mafia boss with small pieces of paper continued to lead his organization from prison
In the EBI it soon became apparent that lawyers could not possibly work well without a laptop, says De Lange of the Nova. In the meantime, lawyers are allowed to work with a laptop via a secure USB stick, but that sometimes causes problems if those USBs are not properly registered. “It is also a challenge to keep those sticks constantly updated.”
Files
For a long-term case of an EBI prisoner that is still workable, says De Lange, but the new plan affects every case. “Lawyers will then have to make a request per prison. All those different USBs must then be constantly updated. That is impossible.”
In addition, the criminal lawyer is not strongly digitized without reason, says De Lange. “Files are becoming increasingly extensive. The relevant information is not ranked, but can be in the entire criminal file. It is then very nice to quickly look for something via a search bar.”
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