The current system of community service as a punishment should be scrapped and partially replaced by a tougher form involving overnight prison stays and compulsory behaviour adjustment programmes, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Tuesday.

A tougher regime would have a great deterrent affect on young criminals who regard a community service sentence as a status symbol, Balkenende told Nos radio.
Fred Teeven, an MP for the Liberal party VVD, dismissed the suggestion as electioneering, pointing out that he had made similar suggestions in the past and received no support from the CDA.