A quarter fewer prisoners in the Netherlands in 2021 than ten years earlier | Inland

In the Netherlands, 54 people per 100,000 inhabitants were in prison last year, according to figures from the council. That is converted about 9,500 people. The Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 27,300 people were detained in 2020. The big difference lies in the definition of a detainee that the authorities use and the numbers that are used. For example, the Council of Europe has not included people in pre-trial detention, while Statistics Netherlands has.

In 2018, the then cabinet closed four more prisons. It deemed this necessary because of the vacancy of ‘too many’ cells.

The survey states that 49 countries provided data. The Netherlands is one of the five countries with the lowest number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants of those countries. In contrast, the Netherlands has a very high suicide rate with almost 13 suicides per 10,000 inmates. The average in European prisons is 5.7 per 10,000 inmates. France has the highest number, 27.9 per 10,000.

In total, 1.4 million people were trapped in the European countries that provided data, according to the Council of Europe. That is equivalent to 102 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.

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