WRITTEN QUESTION E-0090/02

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(25 January 2002)

Subject: Improving the social rehabilitation of prisoners who are addicted to drugs by providing accommodation which is as independent and humane as possible

1. Is the Commission aware of the report An overview study: assistance to drug users in European Union prisons by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction concerning drug use in prisons in EU Member States, which indicates that between 15 and 50 % of prisoners in the European Union either still have or used to have problems with illegal drugs and that, moreover, prisoners are inclined to take drugs because they see this as a remedy for boredom and also as a way of coming to terms with the restrictions imposed by prison life and coping with bad news from the outside world and with the ever-present aggression?

2. Is the Commission aware of the progress of the experiment at Amerswiel prison in the municipality of Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands, which has already been going on for a year, involving eleven group dwellings, which can house eight women prisoners each, in the form of ordinary housing blocks where each prisoner has a key to her own bedroom and the warders only lock the front-door each evening, as a result of which they assume the role of mentors, as described in the newspaper Trouw on 28 December 2001?

3. Is the Commission aware that this type of incarceration reduces drug use, taking of medicines and internal violence and assists social rehabilitation, while the prisoners give far more thought to things and do not wish to risk being returned to a normal institution, and that it has been concluded that this method only fails in the case of prisoners who are likely to escape, aggressive or very lacking in independence, as a result of which it has now also been decided to provide similar accommodation for male prisoners at the neighbouring Zuider Bos institution?

4. Is the Commission aware, furthermore, that in many cases, as a result of such projects as that in the Spangen district of Delfshaven (an administrative subdivision of the municipality of Rotterdam) whereby local-authority institutions or local residents' organisations voluntarily provide accommodation in a shared dwelling for homeless addicts who have been causing a nuisance but have not committed criminal offences, addicts are ultimately motivated to participate voluntarily in drugs rehabilitation projects thanks to the renewed familiarisation with more or less normal living conditions?

5. Will the Commission do its utmost to monitor this experiment in the Dutch prison system closely and make the results available for the resocialisation of drug addicts who have been convicted of criminal offences in other Member States?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(28 February 2002)

The Commission is aware of the existence of the report An overview study, assistance to drug users in European Union Prisons by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

In accordance with the subsidiarity principle the competence for prison services falls entirely on the Member States. The Commission is, however, interested in the developments within the prison services of Member States, notably in view to addiction-related issues and it puts considerable efforts in remaining informed. The Commission services recently heard a lecture from an expert from the Netherlands which did, however, not mention the Amerswiel experiment. The Dutch government has not informed the Commission of either the experiment in the Penitentiary Institution Amerswiel or the project in Spangen. Furthermore, the Commission did not receive any evaluation of these or comparable projects which would render the Commission capable of judging the results of the approach taken.

The Commission based on the contributions of the Member States has started the mid-term evaluation of the EU Action Plan on Drugs (2000-2004) and it will carefully take into account aspects related to prison services. If the Dutch government comes to the conclusion that the Amerswiel project contributes to meeting the goals of the Action Plan, it may report on this.