Prisoner Radicalization and Terrorism Detention Policy by Tinka M. Veldhuis

Author:Tinka M. Veldhuis [Veldhuis, Tinka M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Criminology
ISBN: 9781317423447
Google: kgczDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-05-20T06:02:43+00:00

Developments since 2010

Ever since the opening in 2006, the terrorism wing has been subject of fervent public and political debate in the Netherlands, and the discussion about the government’s policy line has not diminished since then. Since 2010, several notable developments have occurred.

After the 2011 evaluation report was published (Veldhuis et al., 2011) the government responded by closing the terrorism wing in Vught, stating that there were not enough terrorism prisoners to keep the facility open (NOS, 2011). The terrorism wing in De Schie, which was empty at the time, was formally kept available for future use. The inmates who were staying in the terrorism wing in Vught at the time were either released (and/or in some cases deported) or transferred to regular prison units, where they were integrated into the mainstream inmate population. By the end of 2013, all of the inmates who had been detained in the terrorism wing in Vught had been released.

In response to the evaluation report, the Ministry of Security and Justice also announced that at least three of its recommendations would be followed: to introduce a periodic assessment of placements in the terrorism wing in order to regularly review inmates’ stay there, to install a Selection Advisory Committee, and to increase emphasis on rehabilitation and reintegration of the inmates in the terrorism wing.7

After a few years of relatively low threat levels and few violent extremist incidents, the numbers of terrorism-related arrests started to increase again around 2013, as several young Muslims attempted to join the jihad in Syria. As in the rest of Europe, the newspapers in the Netherlands were filled with stories of these “foreign fighters” trying to make their way to Syria or returning after having fought among the ranks of IS, now ready and skilled to plot attacks on European soil. The increased threat led to an intensification of intelligence operations and produced a series of arrests. Less than ten years after the events around the murder of Theo van Gogh and the alleged Hofstad group, the conflict in Syria had led to the incarceration of a new generation of terrorism offenders.

Interestingly, the government responded by returning to its initial, fear-based response to the extremist threat, and revived its concentration policy. In September 2014, the terrorism wing in Vught was reopened (Salome and Van der Wal, 2014). In January 2015, the Ministry of Security and Justice reported that, since 2006, more than eighty inmates had been detained in the terrorism wings. Many of these inmates had been incarcerated in relation to a series of terrorism trials in the context of the conflict in Syria. For example, in December 2014, several individuals were tried for recruitment efforts or for (attempted) fighting in Syria, which led to the first conviction in relation to the conflict (NOS, 2014; Trouw, 2014). In August 2015, another terrorism trial commenced, in which around ten individuals were charged (Groen, 2015). At the time of writing (November 2015), open sources suggest that both terrorism wings (i.e., in Vught and

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