On November 24, 2016, PowNed broadcast the program ‘Drank en Drugs in PI Zuyder Bos’. This program is actually based on misleading- and incorrect information. I would like to give my view and make some explanation.
First of all, no one inmate can walk around in the fresh air area without more than two guards’ present.
Secondly the garden – which is shown on the screen of that program – does not belong to lifelong sentenced inmates. That garden is in the middle of the prison, and from the place shown in the program where people are throwing something over the prison wall, you never will reach that garden. It is impossible to throw anything in to that garden from the shown spot. The parking place for cars and bikes, which is seen outside, is next to the building of administration. Behind the administration building is the visiting room. And then you have the middle corridor. Behind the middle corridor on the first floor; there are sport and prayer places. On the ground floor you’ll find working halls. Behind these, there is a long corridor, which is going through Department A and B. That is the area, where that garden is located, shown in that program. No inmates have access to that garden without the permission of guards. When a group of inmate is working in the garden, the guards are all the time present.
Besides, the lifelong sentenced inmate garden is located at another side of the prison – inside the fresh air area (luchtplaats) next to Department E. This small garden is eight meters long and five meters wide. It can be seen from the guards room of Department E and it is located so five meters away from Department E. All four sides of the garden are covered with fences and the top of it is also covered with a net. Let it be clear that this garden was not shown in this program. Between this garden and the prison wall are also two lines of independent fences and two large roads for personal staff members’ vehicles to pass by. So this little garden with an additional camera is covered with fences and nets where even a small bird cannot enter into. So between the garden and the prison wall you have one security fence, plus a road for personal staff members vehicles and another security fence at the other side of that road. Then there is another road between the second security fence and the prison wall. At the other side of the prison wall is a railway, which is passing parallel to the prison wall. On that wall you find at every twenty meters a camera. The height of this wall is more than six meters. Never ever any contraband was thrown from the outside of the prison in the garden of the lifelong sentenced inmates. Every and each person, who knows Zuyder Bos-prison location, has knowledge of these facts.
Moreover, the garden of the lifelong sentenced inmates is the only place in the Zuyder Bos prison location where extra cameras, were placed to cover the whole garden.
I want to give a few more points of explanation:
1) The person who is called Dino in this program, does not have access to any of the gardens mentioned in the program. I never met him and I do not know him, because he stayed in a different part of the prison.
2) Louis is working together with guards every day from 7:30 am until 16:30 pm. He is doing more work that ten people can do. The guards always accompany him. He obeys the rules better than any personal staff member in the prison. He is only staying in his Department for eating,sleeping, and communication with his lawyers and family. I do not know anything about his life before he was in the prison, but this is what I have seen about the way he behaved in the prison.
3) The accusation that ‘’three inmates making rules in the prison’’ is not true at all. It cannot be true either. It is a deliberate lie. There are some corrupt guards who cooperate with some criminals. Their names are well-known to the directors Mr Poel, Mr Karsen and Mrs Vos. I know that Mrs Van Dijk, governing the prisons from the Ministry, is also aware of this situation. This group of corrupt guards is at the origin of all the mentioned problems in this prison. I would like to say that the majority of the guards are hardworking, honest and decent professionals.
The Ministry is deliberately orchestrating those games including my replacement to another prison to create a reason and atmosphere to close the newly started life sentence program in the Zuyder Bos prison. I believe that Zuyder Bos prison is an excellent location for rehabilitation programs for long sentenced inmates to learn them to work hard and to live according to the Rule of Law. By breaking the life sentence project, the Ministry made clear not to appreciate and accept this kind of rehabilitation programs. I asked my lawyers to inform PowNed about this reaction of mine on their program.
