Too many incidents are immediate due to lack of TBS staff

If staff shortages in DPS clinics are not addressed quickly, incidents involving DPS inmates on leave will increase. Lawyer Jan-Jesse Liftink, who helps a large number of forensic prisoners, warns against this. “The shortage in TBS clinics is severe. This creates incidents,” he says on NPO Radio 1 Sven op 1.

In recent years, pressure on TBS institutions has increased as the number of people sentenced to TBS continues to rise. There were still 201 TBS orders in 2017, which gradually rose to 268 in 2020. This rose to 343 in 2021 and last year there were 281 new TBS inmates (up to and including November 2022).

The increasing attendance is due to the fact that judges have often imposed TBS treatment in the past five years after the uproar over some controversial cases, such as the Ann Faber or Else Borst murders. In addition, judges may impose TBS in more cases, not only in the case of a psychological disorder, but also if the risk of recidivism is high.

In a letter to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Minister Frank Weerwind (Legal Security) warned that shortages would continue in the coming years and acknowledged the importance of recruiting new staff. But according to Lieftink, not enough is happening.

Maximum sentence duration

He wants judges to be given the option to impose the maximum TBS sentence, in addition to the option to extend TBS indefinitely. “We see problems piling up in DPS clinics. If someone commits a robbery without using excessive force, I want the court to give the maximum sentence, say six or eight years.

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With the maximum duration, “the clinic also has to work,” says the lawyer. “Now you can see that sound during the treatment period. People who have been in treatment for two years are told: You are still at the beginning of your treatment. In the meantime, you have weekly consultations with a psychologist and a psychiatrist. That is what I usually experience.”

Lack of staff

According to Lieftink, sometimes (too) long treatment times are a result of staff shortages. “The people who work there are experts, but sometimes they have twenty to thirty TBS inmates under them. They see them, but they still have a lot of work to do. So they need more staff,” he said.

The shortage of hands also risks increasing the number of incidents involving forensic prisoners on leave, warns Liftink. “You don’t just get leave, there’s a whole system for that, and you have to look very far into the process.” But once a patient is qualified, staff must assess whether they are ready for the outside world. “Then you depend on the people on the job site.”

“They have to assess whether someone can go on leave. But it’s much harder for someone filling a department to judge that than an employee who’s been there for twenty years. This leads to misjudgments and incidents, he says.

Double standard

Lieftink thinks there is a double standard for TBS that errs on leave. “Prisoners on leave are more likely to make mistakes. A TBS prisoner goes horribly wrong, but a prisoner doesn’t.

read more:

Tbs system threatens to become unsustainable: ‘number of incidents is piling up’

By: Peter Visser