ABSTRACT
THE DUTCH PENAL CLIMATE: REPUTATION AND REALITY
1595: the water cell
For centuries, the Dutch prison system has had the reputation of being progressive, moderate and humane. This reputation dates back to 1595, in which year a men’s house of detention was opened in a former monastery in Amsterdam. This was followed two years later by the socalled ‘spinning house’ for women. Differentiation was completed in 1603 by the establishment of a special correctional institution for youthful delinquents. These initiatives put into practice the idea developed by Coornhert (1587) and other progressive humanists in the second half of the sixteenth century that the punishment and treatment of criminals should not primarily serve as a deterrent and means of putting them out of the way, but rather as a means towards reform and education.1 These aims were to be achieved through hard physical labour, religious education and strict discipline. In the ‘Rasphouse’, two inmates were required to rasp at least 600 kg of wood per week, an activity that was stimulated by frequent corporal punishment.2 This house of detention enjoyed international fame. In the first place, the regime with its underlying penitentiary concept was considered to be more meaningful and civilized than the scaffold or forms of corporal punishment that were commonly used at that time. In the second, the city government derived economic advantage from it.
