They have lowered the penalties for crime in The Netherlands. And more people have to do community services instead of going to prison. Now they want higher penalties, so the prisons will be full in a few years.
http://www.nrc.nl/international/Feat...son_population
"There is no lack of criminals in the Netherlands," says Vollaard, "Changes in the prison population, including the recent decline, are more a result of policy and sentencing changes than of the declining crime rate."
Drugs couriers
Deputy minister Albayrak could have said: the prison population is declining because judges are sending fewer people to prison. But that would have been politically unwise, says Vollaard. "Already some political parties are saying that those empty prison cells should not be closed but rather filled up with more criminals."
Fewer sentences for drugs offences account for a quarter of the overall drop in effective prison sentences. This is mostly because of a new tactic against cocaine couriers from the Caribbean. Tougher checks on flights from Curacao airport have meant that more smugglers are arrested at the point of departure rather than at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Vollaard offers another reason for the declining prison population: the increased use of community service as an alternative for prison sentences. A change in the law in 2001 made it possible for judges - and in some cases the public prosecutor's office itself - to impose community service for offences carrying an effective prison sentence of up to six months, whereas before community service could be substituted only for fines and suspended prison sentences.