Just 107 people were sentenced to terms in a psychiatric prison last year, the Volkskrant reports on Thursday.

In 2004, 226 people were given a psychiatric prison sentence (tbs) and the numbers declined steadily since then.
Leo van der Geest of research bureau Nyfer which has looked into the trend told the paper one reason is the refusal of lawyers to allow their clients to undergo a psychiatric investigation.
TBS, as psychiatric prison is know, is seen by both lawyers and defendants as an effective life sentence, he said.
Last year, a spokesman for the public prosecution department made similar claims.
Following a spate of media reports about escapes and reoffending by tbs prisoners while on leave, the average sentence has now been screwed up from four years to up to 12 years, the paper says, quoting an unpublished report.
The decline in numbers has led to several units being shut down and financial problems for some clinics.