ABSTRACT
The ideal in the Netherlands was a new society with the worker as a new type of person who would distinguish himself by virtue, helpfulness and public spirit after World War II. Without freedom, virtue turns to compulsion, public spirit to herd instinct’. In a sense it is this same spirit which is reflected in the drastic reforms of the Dutch prison system that took place shortly after World War II. Many aspects of work, also the disciplinary ones, are regulated further in the case law on prisoners’ rights of complaint and appeal. In general, the prisoner’s preference is taken into consideration and, of course, the right of complaint has a corrective function. A fundamental difference in legal status between convicted offenders in prisons and untried detainees in houses of detention is that former are obliged to perform the work assigned to them, while, owing to the presumption of innocence, the untried detainees do not have a duty to work.
