For years, the youth prisoners in the Netherlands have been struggling with staff shortages. This has been exacerbated since April and that is bad for the safety of the prisoners and staff, three government inspections write. This also applies to the Haven juvenile prison in Veenhuizen.
A greater shortage of educational (pedagogical) employees is the cause of the increased problems. These employees guide, care and support the young people who are stuck in a youth prison.
Because the prisons want to comply with current legislation, the deployment of temporarily hired staff stopped in April. Almost a third of the educational employees were hired, but not all the places that have been released have been filled with someone who can employ. That has ensured that there are “big gaps in the personnel occupation.”
The result is a shorter day program for the young people. They are forced to spend more time in their room, miss teaching hours and get less contact with their loved ones. As a result, the principles of juvenile criminal law come under pressure.
Because young people are not in the juvenile prison to just sit out a punishment. The aim is to let them learn from their punishment through training, upbringing and treatment so that they will not go wrong again in the future.
At the end of last year, the Justice and Security Inspectorate wrote that there is a lot of pressure on the juvenile criminal chain. For example, waiting times are too long and the educational quality is under great pressure. This would be contrary to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since then, the problems have grown, despite measures taken, according to the inspections.
This also has consequences for staff. For example, they have to deal with more work pressure and, for example, they have less time and space to “act consistently de-escalating.” According to the inspections, this could encourage incidents.
Yet there are benefits to the decision to only work with permanent staff. Permanent employees better build a bond with the young people and are more often a point of contact for, for example, the teachers of a school.
Young adult from 18 to 27 years old can come into a juvenile prison. The inspections warn that even more youth prisoners will be needed in the coming years because more and more young people are ending up in the youth prison.
As a solution, they call on the State Secretary for Legal Protection to ensure that there are enough staff, there are enough places and there is more money going to the youth prisons. That money must also go to a new youth prison.
According to a spokesperson, it is up to the inspections to raise the problems, solving the youth prisons and the State Secretary himself.