Imagine that!

Huffpost UK wrote 26 June 2013, Netherlands Close Eight Prisons Due To Lack Of Criminals,

As prison populations surge in the UK, with overcrowded cells and repeat offenders, the opposite in happening in the Netherlands.

The country is actually to close eight prisons because of a lack of criminals, the Dutch justice ministry has announced.

Declining crime rates in the Netherlands mean that although the country has the capacity for 14,000 prisoners, there are only 12,000 detainees, reported the nrc.nl.

The decrease is expected to continue, the ministry said, with Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak saying that natural redundancy and other measures should counter any forced lay-offs.

112 prisoners per 100,000 people in the Netherlands, vs. 715 in the U.S. Somebody remind me, what do we get in the U.S. for spending all that extra money locking people up?

-jsq