{"id":6825,"date":"2023-05-28T08:15:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T06:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pennadvocaten.nl\/?p=6825"},"modified":"2023-05-28T08:15:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T06:15:21","slug":"house-arrest-as-principal-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/2023\/05\/28\/huisarrest-als-hoofdstraf\/","title":{"rendered":"House arrest as chief punishment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Netherlands, we have four main penalties. They are: imprisonment, imprisonment, community service and a fine. Detention and imprisonment are both custodial sanctions, but detention lasts shorter and can be imposed for offences<\/em>. These are classified in the law as less serious than crimes. The enforcement of detention, like provisional <\/em>detention, generally taking place in the house of detention.<\/p>\n

But whether someone is given a custodial or short-term prison sentence, the consequences for a convicted person can be disastrous. Back in October 2021, the Council for Criminal Justice and Youth Protection (RSJ) reported that short detentions are of little use and, above all, cause much unnecessary harm to the detainee and their environment. They are too short to initiate successful reintegration, but too long to protect someone from detention damage. Think of loss of job, home or relationship.<\/p>\n

The RSJ made a number of recommendations such as abolishing the community service ban and reducing substitute custody. An alternative that has remained underexposed is that of home detention. In the Netherlands, home detention is not yet a capital punishment. In this respect too, the Netherlands seems to lag behind foreign countries, where serving your sentence at home is much more common. As recently as May 2023, the former president of France was sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended. However, under the French system, he does not have to go to prison and is allowed to serve the unconditional part at home with an ankle bracelet.<\/p>\n

It should also be used more often in the Netherlands. Home detention, especially for shorter sentences, can also meet the goals of punishment, namely: retribution, general and special prevention. Retribution refers to the punishment itself. General prevention aims to deter possible future offenders by punishing offenders. Special prevention aims to influence an offender to such an extent (through resocialisation) while serving his sentence that he will not re-offend.<\/p>\n

Because home detention is a strongly freedom-restricting sanction, it can be classified as retaliation. Relationships, visiting the sports club or a restaurant is out of the question. These restrictions will also act as a deterrent. Although the degree of deterrence could depend on the amount of space in a home. It goes without saying that home detention in a small space is much harder to sustain, than in a spacious villa. This could be taken into account in the length of home detention to be imposed. A solution should also be sought for people who have no (own) home. In any case, home detention is considered more suitable with a view to resocialisation and the related prevention of recidivism, as the offender is better able to maintain contact with his relatives and may be able to perform work at home.<\/p>\n

A draft bill is currently in the pipeline. However, a possible entry into force cannot be expected any time soon. Nevertheless, there is no need to wait that long. Under the current system, a sentence similar to home detention can be requested. Namely a long (suspended) prison sentence, which will not be enforced if the convict complies with special conditions. In this case, abiding by the location requirement under electronic surveillance. Under current legislation, sentences of up to two years can be entirely suspended. For prison sentences of up to four years, the court may determine that up to 2 years will be imposed on probation.<\/p>\n

Both from individuals in the judiciary and academia (Maastricht University), the recommendation has now been made that a suspended sentence with 'home detention' as a special condition will be requested more often by or on behalf of the defendant. As long as home detention is not yet included as a main penalty in the statute book, it can be experienced whether home detention is actually more effective than a short-term prison sentence, given the punishment goals to be achieved. The appropriate and necessary punishment must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

What will be important here will be the extent to which the probation service can and wants to cooperate in supervision. After all, there are already capacity problems. The money that can be saved -in 2019, an adult prisoner's stay cost 245 euros per day, according to the Department of Correctional Institutions- could be used for this purpose.<\/p>\n

Mr. D.M. Penn<\/p>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Nederland kennen we vier hoofdstraffen. Dat zijn: gevangenisstraf, hechtenis, taakstraf en een geldboete. Hechtenis en gevangenisstraf zijn allebei vrijheidsbenemende sancties, maar hechtenis duurt korter en kan worden opgelegd bij overtredingen. Deze worden in de wet als minder ernstig aangemerkt dan misdrijven. De tenuitvoerlegging van hechtenis vindt, evenals voorlopige hechtenis, in de regel plaats in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[28,29],"class_list":["post-6825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homepage","category-strafrecht","tag-huisarrest","tag-thuisdetentie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penn.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}