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Netherlands

Capital city — Amsterdam

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Country-profile

Contact with the outside world

Visitation rights

All prisoners have the right to receive visits

yes

At a minimum, visits last one hour and take place once a week (Article 38 of the PBW).

  • In May 2022, the CPT noted that in the prisons it had visited, untried prisoners could have one-hour visits, and convicted prisoners could have two-hour visits. At Dordrecht Prison, convicted prisoners were allowed one unsupervised conjugal visit with their partner per month, for two hours.

    At Aruba Correctional Institution (Korrectie Instituut Aruba – KIA), visits were authorised for people in remand detention and sentenced individuals, for a total of one hour and fifteen minutes per week. Plexiglass partitions used on the tables were a source of frustration and complaints.

    At Centre for Detention and Correction Curaçao (SDKK), prisoners were allowed one hour of unpartitioned visiting time every two weeks.

    At Point Blanche Prison in Sint Maarten, prisoners were allowed one 30-minute visit per week.

    i
    23/06/2023
    / Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture (CPT)

A visit permit is obtained by written request to the prison governor. A form is filled in by the prisoner.
Visitors are required to present identification to enter the facility.

People eligible to visit

anyone

Visits take place in a communal area equipped with long tables. Chairs are placed on each side. A low window, at hand level, separates inmates from their visitors to prevent any illicit exchanges.
Physical contact is only allowed briefly on the arrival and departure of visitors.
Further details on visiting conditions are available here (in Dutch).

Prisoners and visitors can meet without physical barriers

yes

Prisoners are allowed to receive visits from their children or minor relatives

yes, special arrangements are provided

Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. This requirement also applies to visitors under the age of 16 in Extra Secure Units (EBI).
Children’s access to the visiting rooms is subject to the same conditions as adults. Dedicated rooms are sometimes provided. These enable interaction and games to take place in an appropriate, equipped and decorated area. Physical and emotional contact is allowed.

  • In May 2022, the CPT noted that parent-child visits occurred every six weeks in a child-friendly environment. At Vught Prison, prisoners complained that waiting times could stretch to several months.

    i
    23/06/2023
    / Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture (CPT)

Conjugal visits are allowed

yes

The prison governor grants conjugal visits under the following conditions:

  • The incarceration lasts more than six months (pre-trial and convicted prisoners)

  • The visit is helpful in maintaining family ties and important for the prisoner’s reintegration

  • The visitor and the prisoner can provide evidence of a lasting relationship

  • The prosecutor views that the conjugal visit does not pose any risk to the investigation

Required conditions for conjugal visits

established relationship, no minimum duration

Conjugal visits are allowed once a month in dedicated rooms. Their duration is determined by the prison governor.

All visitors may bring in certain items provided that these have been approved in advance. The list of prohibited items is available here (in Dutch).

There is no legislation or guidance for the placement of an inmate close to his/her relatives.
Inmates are occasionally moved far from their home owing to the closure of many prisons. Family ties are affected by this.

Correspondence

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail

yes

Postage costs are borne by the inmate.

Mail exchanged is subject to control

yes

The prison governor decides on how correspondence is to be checked. Prisoners shall be informed in advance of the procedures for such checks.
The governor may restrict correspondence on the grounds of public order and security (Article 36 of the PBW).

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail in sealed envelopes

yes

Prisoners are allowed to receive parcels

yes

The contents are checked. Books and clothing are among the permitted items.

E-mail exchange is possible

no

Use of the Internet is prohibited. It may be authorised for rehabilitative and educational purposes. Children may send e-mails to the facility. Staff will print the e-mail and give it to the parent.

  • In May 2022, the CPT noted new restrictions concerning correspondence. Until 2021, everyone in Dutch prisons could send letters to and from prison via emails that were monitored, sent and received by the prison staff (“eMates”). These new restrictions particularly affect foreign nationals with family abroad, who can no longer use the system and must communicate via traditional letters sent by post.

    i
    23/06/2023
    / Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture (CPT)

Phone calls

Prisoners are allowed to make external phone calls

yes

Prisoners are allowed to make phone calls lasting 10 minutes, at least once a week.

  • In May 2022, the CPT received a high number of complaints from individuals in remand detention at Dordrecht Prison, relating to the insufficient time they could spend outside of cells to make calls and keep in contact with their families. The insufficient number of payphones exacerbated the issue. At Vught Prison, 20 untried prisoners shared a single telephone for the whole wing. In all of the prisons visited, the prisoners could make video calls to their loved ones.

    At Aruba Correctional Institution (Korrectie Instituut Aruba – KIA), both remand and convicted individuals could make 10-minute calls to their loved ones several times per day using payphones in the yard or indoors.

    At Centre for Detention and Correction Curaçao (SDKK), the prisoners had access to payphones in the yard and could make calls during time spent outside of the cells. Some of the telephones were out of service.

    At Point Blanche Prison in Sint Maarten, the telephone lines were destroyed by hurricanes in 2017 and were undergoing repairs. In the meantime, the prisoners could call their loved ones from a telephone in the prison offices once per week, for 5 minutes.

    i
    23/06/2023
    / Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture (CPT)

Prisoners are allowed to call

anyone

The phones are located

  • in the exercise yards
  • in corridors

The cost of phone calls is in line with market prices

no

Call charges are borne by the inmate (Article 39, paragraph 1, of the PBW).
Teleo is the private telecommunications provider. Its prices are inflated.
During its visit in 2016, the CPT received numerous complaints from prisoners about the prices of calls.

Phones calls are wire tapped

yes

Conversations may be recorded (Article 39, paragraph 1 of l).

The use of cell phones is authorised

no

Prisoners have access to video calls with external contacts

yes

Some inmates, however, have access to “a tablet equipped with voice-over-IP software (like Skype)” for 30 minutes per month.1

  1. Council of Europe, “Report to the Government of the Netherlands on the visit to the Netherlands carried out from 2 to 13 May 2016”, January 2017, p.32 ↩

  • At Point Blanche Prison in Sint Maarten, prisoners were not allowed to make calls to their loved ones abroad but could make one 5-minute video call each week.

    i
    23/06/2023
    / Comité européen pour la prévention de la torture (CPT)