Dutch prison population rose 1.3% in 2014

Prison interior with dramatic lightThe Dutch prison population rose 1.3% to 43,240 last year, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.

At the same time, the average period people spent in jail went down slightly, due to a rise in detention for non-payment of fines, the CBS said.

Six in 10 prisoners had a non-Dutch background. Of them, two in 10 were categorised as coming from a western country. Non-Dutch westerners account for 10% of the Dutch population.

Nearly 11% – or 4,600 – had a Moroccan background even though just 2.2% of the population have Moroccan roots. The percentage of Moroccans in the total jail population has remained fairly stable since 2005, the CBS figures show.

Almost 10% of prisoners were of Surinamese origin, almost five times the proportion of Surinamese in the population at large. However, people from Suriname and Turkey now make up a smaller percentage of the prison population than they did 10 years ago, the figures show.

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