The five small-scale juvenile detention centers that should serve as an alternative to regular juvenile detention centers are virtually empty. This is apparent from figures from the Ministry of Justice and Security, requested by NRC.
In the so-called Small-scale Provision for Judicial Youth (KVJJ), young people can be remanded in custody or serve their prison terms. During the day they are allowed to go to their own school, family, internship or work under supervision, otherwise they stay in the institution. This makes it a less drastic form of deprivation of liberty than in a large juvenile detention center. The door is locked at ten o’clock in the evening.
The KVJJs include young people between the ages of 12 and 23 who are less likely to commit a crime, express regret or have come into contact with the police and the judiciary for the first time. They are also motivated to change their behaviour. The aim is to prevent these young people from becoming serious criminals later on.
Five locations
The KVJJ started as an experiment in 2016. There are now five locations spread across the country: in the regions of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam Rijnmond, Groningen and South Limburg. Each location has eight places, where young people stay on average for a month. Where Amsterdam was still half full in August, there was only one young person in Limburg. The average occupancy of all locations was 30 percent.
According to psychotherapist and researcher at the Arkin mental health institution, Thimo van der Pol, it is not the KVJJ’s that they are understaffed. Sufficient staff and money have been reserved. The Child Protection Board, the probation service, lawyers, the Public Prosecution Service and the judge often also advise sending young people to a small location. But the Individual Affairs Division (DIZ) of the Ministry of Justice, which ultimately decides on this, often chooses a different solution. Van der Pol: “They opt for a large juvenile prison much more often than necessary.”
Children’s judge Leonore Briët regrets that this department only interprets the judge’s decision as advice. Now the ministry determines where a juvenile is detained, not the juvenile judge who has all the information. “DIZ is not present at the session where care providers share information and where you look young people and parents in the eye,” says Briët. And that while matters are becoming increasingly complex and young people have to deal with, for example, debt, poverty and psychiatric problems.
The Ministry of Justice is too cautious, notes Van der Pol van Arkin. “While we look at how a young person gets back on the right path as quickly as possible. If you left it to the people who work with the youth and the court, those small venues would bulge.” Those involved say that things went better during the trial period, when the juvenile judge simply decided and not the DIZ department.
To avoid
Children’s judge Briët says he understands the caution, because the ministry is responsible for all young people who are detained: “They want to avoid the risk that something goes wrong in the small-scale facility, where young people have more freedom.” She also does not think that every young person fits into a KVJJ, but at the moment too little use is made of that possibility.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice says that the KVJJs are fairly new and that it takes time to start something like this. The ministry does not agree with the conclusion that it does not dare to place young people in KVJJs, but does state that the conditions it applies for placing or not placing them could be better. The spokesperson: “We are working on that. In some cases, the criteria were too strict and it is being examined whether they can be broadened.”
This story came about through a collaboration between the research editors of De Balie Live Journalism and NRC. On October 3, a discussion about juvenile crime will take place in De Balie (19:30). You can also watch via live stream at www.debalie.nl