The investigative editors of RTL News collected descriptions of hundreds of issues in which employees of the Judicial Institutions Service (DJI) have been punished since 2020.
Sex with inmate
Although it is strictly prohibited, relationships between prison guards and inmates regularly occur. For example, an employee of the PI in Dordrecht was summarily dismissed on June 23 last year after it was discovered that the employee had had sex with a prisoner.
In addition, many employees have been reprimanded for not keeping sufficient professional distance from detainees or ex-prisoners. For example, an employee was fired in 2021 for having contact and transferring money to former prisoners.
Fallen asleep
Guards are expected to be alert, but that is not always the case. At least six guards have been caught sleeping during night shifts since 2020. Two of them were fired.
In the overview below you will find all descriptions of things that RTL News has collected since 2020, and below we highlight a few more notable things.
Here you only see the reports that have been proven or are still under investigation according to DJI. Use the arrows or search bar to search for specific notifications or settlements. For example, contraband (importing contraband).
A notable incident is the release of an incorrect detainee from the Schiphol Detention Center last year. Two employees did not go through all the procedures carefully and thus released someone with the same name as the detainee who should have been released.
The employees were found out after discovering their mistake transferred to another department.
Headbutt and spitting
At least 31 DJI employees have been reprimanded since 2020 for unauthorized use of force towards detainees. Seven of them were fired, and many perpetrators were transferred to other departments.
In 2021, a prison guard was fired after headbutting an inmate who was found Skyping with a tablet. In 2022, an employee received a written reprimand after spitting back at an inmate who had spit at him.
Two employees of the Schiphol Detention Center had to be taken to task by the management after they plastered the identity cards of two detainees with a fake identity card of the shot dead drug lord Pablo Escobar.
That ‘joke’ was not appreciated by management, who imposed disciplinary punishment on both employees.
Forbidden pizza
The idea of a prison is that people can’t just get out. To ensure this, strict rules and controls apply to who and what enters. There are also clear rules for locking (cell) doors. Yet this regularly goes wrong, as is evident from the cases that RTL Nieuws received.
In at least ten cases, employees have been reprimanded for not closing cell doors or not closing them properly. Three employees of the extra-secure facility of PI Rotterdam received a slap on the fingers in 2020 after a pizza delivery person was allowed in without permission during a night shift with a pizza box that was then not checked for possible prohibited contents.
DJI wanted to fire the employees, but… the judge did not agree and considered a lighter sanction more appropriate. The employees appealed still fired.
‘High pressure causes problems’
In response to the figures and cases, the FNV trade union states that integrity violations are undesirable. “Especially in a sensitive working environment such as the prison system,” explains David Schreuders of the union. But somewhere, abuses are also the result of the conditions under which work has to be done, he believes.
“The workers at DJI are constantly under high pressure. Under high tension, the risk of undesirable behavior increases and a high workload can also explain why internal rules are not always adhered to. The fact that the workers do not receive the reward they deserve also ensures that that loyalty to the organization can come under pressure. And that remuneration at DJI really needs to increase.”
2024-02-10 06:03:42
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