Last week I was watching a Dutch documentary about Tony, a repetitive offender who ends up back in prison after yet another armed robbery. Court had decided to subject him to a 7-week program at the Pieter Baan Centre.
(For all foreign readers unfamiliar with the Piet Baan Centre, this institute is a ‘forensic psychiatric observation clinic, operated by the Ministry of Security of Justice, where suspects of crimes in the Netherlands are observed to ascertain whether they can be held wholy responsible for their suspected crimes.’ (Wikipedia))
During the documentary, we follow Tony as a team of dozens of psychiatrics and behavioural analysists pass by and create a detailed image of Tony’s childhood and the influences this might have had on the offences he has committed. As I’m watching, Tony regurarly throws a fit of temper, as soon as someone refutes with anything he says. I’ve only seen him showe remorse once, when he explains how awful it made him feel that one of the girls working in the last shop he robbed, peed her pants out of fear. Tony comes across as extremely unsympathetic and the team of highly educated researchers later conclude that Tony is a narcistic, self-centered person who is extremely likely to continue his path of repetitive (armed!) offenses. They estimate the chances that Tony will fall back to the pattern of drugs and armed robberies as high as 95%, so they’re basically sure that it’s just a matter of time before the same crimes will be committed yet again. The eventual verdict, after 7 weeks of observation, is that Tony should be admitted to a so-called ‘TBS-program’, a measure taken to help criminals of unsound mind return back to civilization.
As the camera follows Tony in his cell, approximately 4x3m in size, we can clearly see there’s no shortage in luxury in his living conditions. A television, radio, books, computer… People who earn just below modal wages probably can’t afford some of the facilities this convicted criminal can freely make use of. Any time Tony had to attend sessions or interrogations, he is taken by one of the members of the psychiatric team, someone who is probably paid around €100 an hour by the government.
I can not believe why the government would be willing to invest such a huge sum of money on someone of whom they are pretty much certain will commit similar crimes after his TBS program anyway? Tony is just an example, but I would like to stress the fact that he has been in and out of jail since he was young, arrested over and over again for the same crimes. Why doesn’t the Dutch government realize that this jurisdictional system is highly ineffective? Yes, I agree to the fact that (almost) anybody, depending on the nature of the crime, should be given a second chance. I do not agree with the death penalty, I’d rather say I oppose such an extreme measure. However, I do think that the government should start to take on a more realistic approach in putting serious repetitive offenders behind bars. In America, if you get arrested for, let’s say, steeling a car for the third time, you’ll get sentenced with life in prison. But here, if you get arrested for robbing a gasstation at gunpoint for the 60th time, you’ll get the latest copy of Nicci’s book, cable tv and high speed internet. Something to think about?
Wordsnacks 