Government plans to make prisoners pay €16 a day towards the cost of keeping them in prison have been condemned by lawyers, judges and legal experts.

The country’s three big law associations want junior justice minister Fred Teeven to scrap the plan, saying it will increase debt and make it more likely that prisoners will re-offend.

Prisoners and the parents of juveniles would be liable to pay the charge for a maximum two years, costing them up to €11,680.

‘A prisoner earns no more than €15 a week when he or she works the maximum number of hours,’ Martin Moerings of the criminal law council told RTL news. ‘The planned contribution would be €112 a week, so they cannot earn enough to pay it.’

The Dutch law society says the payments are, in effect, a fine. ‘But no judge has had a say in whether this is or is not appropriate in individual cases,’ said spokesman Rob van der Hoeven.

The cabinet is also planning to make people who are found guilty pay part of their process costs. In total, the plans have been budgeted to bring in €65m a year.