The Life in Custody Study: the quality of prison life in Dutch prison regimes
| Date | 03 December 2018 |
| Pages | 253-268 |
| Published date | 03 December 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-07-2018-0020 |
| Author | Esther F.J.C. van Ginneken,Hanneke Palmen,Anouk Q. Bosma,Paul Nieuwbeerta,Maria L. Berghuis |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology |
The Life in Custody Study: the quality of
prison life in Dutch prison regimes
Esther F.J.C. van Ginneken, Hanneke Palmen, Anouk Q. Bosma, Paul Nieuwbeerta and
Maria L. Berghuis
Abstract
Purpose –The Life in Custody (LIC) Study is a nationwide prospective cohort study examining the quality of
prison life in the Netherlands. The purpose of this paper is to describe Dutch prisoners’perceptions of prison
climate, as well as differences across regimes.
Design/methodology/approach –The target population of the study consisted of all male and female adult
prisoners in the Netherlands who were incarcerated in various regimes in a total of 28 prisons, between
January and April 2017. An intensive and personal recruitment strategy was employed. Participants
completed a detailed survey, the prison climate questionnaire (PCQ). Self-reported information on a variety of
topics was collected, including perceived prison climate, well-being and self-reported behaviour.
Findings –In total, 4,938 prisoners participated in the survey, which amounts to a high response rate
of 81 per cent. Analyses show that respondents’characteristics are almost identical to those of
non-respondents. Ratings of prison climate vary across domains and regimes, with more positive scores for
minimum-security regimes.
Practical implications –A detailed methodological approach is described that can be adopted to achieve a
high response rate with survey research among prisoners. The paper alerts researchers and practitioners to a
large ongoing study and first findings on prison climate in the Netherlands. The PCQ can be requested from
the authors and used in future research (internationally) to gain information about the perceived quality of
prison life. The paper gives insight in how different regimes are associated with differences in perceived prison
climate. Collaboration on the research project can be sought with the authors.
Originality/value –Findings of the LIC study illustrate the value of having data on prison climate. Results of
the study will contribute to more knowledge on imprisonment and what can be done to improve the humane
treatment of offenders by the criminal justice system. Moreover, knowledge about the methodology of the
study may enable future comparative research on prison climate.
Keywords Survey,The Netherlands, Imprisonment, Well-being, Prison climate, Prison climate questionnaire,
Quality of prisonlife
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Yearly, approximately 33,000 people enter prisons in the Netherlands (De Looff et al., 2017).
In order to be able to minimise the harmful consequences of imprisonment, it is important to gather
information about the conditions of confinement and its impact on the well-being and behaviour of
prisoners. The Dutch Life in Custody (LIC) Study was designed to fulfil this purpose and to
systematically collect information on prison climate, its determinants, and its consequences. The study
was developed for research and management purposes and therefore accommodated requests
from the Dutch Prison Service as well as research interests for a new and unique study on prison
climate in the Netherlands. The combined interest was a large benefit for this study, since it remains a
challenge to conduct research on imprisonment. In particular, it can be difficult to achieve access to
prisons for research purposes and to recruit a representative sample of participants. Furthermore, it is
a challenge to address topics and research questions that are of interest to policy makers,
practitioners and researchers. The Dutch LIC study does precisely that. It has a methodologically
strong design with a large population-based sample of all adult prisoners in Dutch facilities.
Received 10 July 2018
Revised 17 September 2018
Accepted 18 September 2018
This Life in Custody Study was
funded by the Dutch Prison
Service (DJI) and Leiden University.
The opinions, findings, and
conclusions expressed in this
article are those of the authors and
do not necessarily reflect those of
the DJI. The authors wish to thank
the DJI for their support with the
administration of the survey.
Esther F.J.C. van Ginneken is
Assistant Professor at the
Institute of Criminal Law and
Criminology, Leiden University,
Leiden, The Netherlands.
Hanneke Palmen,
Anouk Q. Bosma,
Paul Nieuwbeerta and
Maria L. Berghuis are all based
at the Institute of Criminal Law
and Criminology, Leiden
University, Leiden,
The Netherlands.
DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-07-2018-0020 VOL. 4 NO. 4 2018, pp.253-268, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRACTICE
j
PAGE253
The objectives of this article are: to describe the Dutch prison population regarding their perceptions of
the prison climate, and to explore differences in perceptions of the prison climate across prisoners in
different prison regimes. For this purpose, weused survey results from the prison climate questionnaire
(PCQ), distributed among the population of adult prisoners in the Netherlands.
Imprisonment in the Netherlands
There is no uniform characterisation of imprisonment in the Netherlands. While conditions could
be characterised as favourable given the low incarceration rate and interest in a positive prison
climate, the government has introduced various austerity measures and a differentiation in
privilege levels. Prisons in the Netherlands have recently received media attention due to the
rather unusual situation of empty cells and prisons and a falling prison population (Ash, 2016;
Cluskey, 2017). Despite a spike in the imprisonment rate in 2005, the rate of imprisonment in the
Netherlands remains comparatively low at 51 per 100,000 inhabitants (Aebi et al., 2018).
The recent drop in the prison population has been accompanied by a range of budget cuts,
including the closure of many prisons and an increase in double cell capacity from 2,200 (number
of beds) in 2012 to 6,058 in 2016. Notwithstanding these austerity measures, the Prison Service
has expressed a commitment to a humane and positive prison climate, which provided the
impetus for a study into the quality of life in Dutch prisons.
A few important regime characteristics andrecent policy changes are important tonote in relation
to the prison climate. First, Dutch prisons run different regimes for adults (young people under
18 are not included inthe current study, but see Van der Laan and Eichelsheim, 2013).There are
remand centresfor pre-trial detainees and policedetainees, regular prisonsfor convicted prisoners
and separate facilities for men and women.There are extra-care units within prisons for vulnerable
prisoners, which may be due to the nature of their offence or mental health problems. Prisoners
with severemental health problems are imprisonedin psychiatric penitentiaryfacilities (not included
in this study). There are also units for prisoners who received a measureof two-year imprisonment
for persistentoffenders (ISD, seeMoerings, 2007). Variationexists in the security levelof units: a few
units have extrasecurity measures (e.g. for knownor suspected terrorists, otherhigh-risk prisoners
and prisonerswith severe behavioural problems)and prisons have segregationcells; there are also
minimum-securityunits, with more freedom and sometimesonly night-time imprisonment.There is
one prison for foreign national prisoners (not included in this study).
Second, in 2014a differentiation in regimes wasintroduced for convicted prisoners (Staatscourant
20 February 2014). The basic regime applies to all prisoners (including pre-trial detainees) and
provides for 43hours of out-of-cell time and activities (including one hour for visits) per week.
Convicted prisoners can be promoted to a “plus”regimeif they have shown good behaviourand a
motivation towork on their re-integration fora period of six weeks. The plus regimeoffers five extra
hours a week of out-of-cell activities, including education, an extra hour for visits and rehabilitation
courses. Furthermore, prisoners in the plus regime are normally allowed to stay out of cell in
betweenactivities and they are also eligiblefor placement in minimum-securityfacilities at the end of
their sentence. Misconduct can result in demotion to the basic regime. The introduction of regime
differentiation was intended to positively influence prisoners’behaviour by rewarding desirable
behaviour and to reserve costly re-integration activities for motivated prisoners.
Lastly, various experimental changes to prison conditions have been introduced in different
prisons under the umbrella of prison climate. Prisoners who are affected by these changes tend
to have greater freedom, for example, in terms of moving around the prison, having a key to their
own cell, and the ability to cook their own meals. These initiatives tend to be small scale and
available exclusively to prisoners in a “plus”regime. The evaluations from these projects have so
far found some support for positive effects on the prison climate, including staff–prisoner
relationships and prisoners’autonomy (De Jong et al., 2015, 2016; Farahi and Van de Rijt, 2016).
Prison climate
Prison climate is the central concept in the LIC study’s theoretical framework and is similar to
notions such as subjective quality of prison life. Prison climate has been defined as “the social,
PAGE254
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRACTICE
j
VOL. 4 NO. 4 2018
To continue reading
Request your trial