There some problems we should pray to have.
Our Dutch cousins are having to close prisons at an alarming rate. Yes, that’s correct, folks.
The government of Holland are shutting down tronke because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. They have closed more than 30 jails in the past eight years, five in the last few months.
It seems prison inmates are an endangered species in the Netherlands. The country is also sitting with the headache of what to do with over 300 youth detention centres that are no longer needed.
And it’s not just them, either. Sweden has also been closing down prisons, because there’s a lack of crime. Now the headache of converting and repurposing jails begins.
In one case, a prison in Holland was converted into a multi-purpose art centre, focussing on creating opportunities for refugees.
Another became transitional housing for the homeless, which, of course, means that they’ll probably run out of homeless people one of these days as well.
But there is a down side as nearly 2 000 Dutch wardens have lost their jobs. It would have been many more if it wasn’t for Norway.
The Nordic country north of Holland has a few too many convicts and has started exporting them. The Netherlands is, of course, accepting them, because they want to retain the wardens’ jobs. Closing prisons is good news in many ways.
It means less money wasted and less crime. But, most of all, isn’t it a very lekker problem to sit with?