Netherlands Closing More Prisons?!

The Bijlmerbajes prison complex in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Photo Credit: Google Maps.

Since 2009 Dutch officials have been working hard to rehabilitate criminals, and eliminate crime from their country. It's looking like they've been doing a great job too, because it's recently been announced that they are laying off another 3,500 prison staff, and closing more than a dozen prisons this year. I think there is a lot that other countries can learn from this situation.

The challenge we face here in America is that our prison system is all for profit, which leads to those in charge wanting more criminals, rather than wanting to clean up our streets. This is why we see such a huge incarceration rate over here, and that's why we need to learn from the Dutch. In the Netherlands they have far more lenient drug laws, which would eliminate a lot of our prison population if adopted in the US. Furthermore, they have a large focus on rehabilitating criminals, rather than just locking them away.

The issues this brings up are very broad, but here are some suggestions that I think would improve the US prison situation drastically:

1. Relax our strict drug laws, making marijuana legal nationally and relaxing the punishments for many other drug related charges.
2. Work hard to lower the number of people living below the poverty line, and shorten the divide between the rich and the poor.
3. Remove profit from the prison equation.

What else do you think we could do to improve our situation here in the US? Let me know in the comments!

Sources: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/netherlands-now-has-more-prison-staff-than-prisoners-1.2606537
http://www.trueactivist.com/netherlands-closing-19-prisons-due-to-lack-of-criminals/