The House of Representatives wants the outgoing cabinet to allocate extra money to reduce the cell shortage. This money will come from a fund intended for the establishment of a constitutional court.
A majority of the House supports this proposal from D66. This includes NSC, the party that put the constitutional court on the political agenda. Such a constitutional court should test laws against the constitution, a major wish of the party. NSC had this included in the outline agreement.
But the future of the constitutional court has become uncertain after the fall of the cabinet. According to the initiators of the proposal, it has therefore become “unlikely” that such a court will be established. And so, as far as they are concerned, the money can be used for another pressing problem.
Due to a combination of too few cells and a shortage of staff, prisons in the Netherlands are almost full. Despite urging from the now-resigned State Secretary Ingrid Coenradie, the cabinet had not allocated any extra money for this.
Joost Sneller (D66) calls that “unacceptable”. “The cabinet is releasing convicted criminals early because of a cell shortage, but refuses to allocate 1 euro extra to solve that,” says the Member of Parliament.
For NSC, that was also a reason to sign the amendment. “It is not acceptable that prison guards have to work so hard that more than 12 percent are now sick. It is not acceptable that a code black exists, that two-person cells remain unused. And it is certainly not acceptable that people have to wait years before they ‘get’ to serve their sentence,” NSC Member of Parliament Willem Koops motivates the vote in favor.
The money will be used for renovations, extra cells and to attract more staff. Almost all parties voted in favor of the proposal, with the exception of DENK.