defrog: (benjamins)
defrog ([personal profile] defrog) wrote2009-05-30 01:01 pm

NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM TO GO DUTCH ON PRISONS

ITEM: The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system, due to the declining crime rate, which the ministry's research department expects to continue for some time.

One alternative: filling up the excess capacity by importing prisoners from Belgium, which is facing overpopulation in its prisons.

Not that any of this reflects on the state of the current situation in, say, the US. Far from it.

In fact, in a recession, you need whatever growth industries you can get. Like the private prison industry. Sure, they've taken a beating in the stock market like everyone else with states looking at budget cuts, but with the US prison pop facing an overcrowding rate of 28% by 2012, most market analysts still see private prisons as a serious growth industry.

And that's good for the economy. To say nothing of the judges.

So let the Dutch be all smug about their stupid low crime rates. Feh.

It’s a crime,

This is dF