The Netherlands is closing 8 prisons due to a lack of prisoners!



Right now, the Netherlands prisons can hold 14,000 prisoners, but they only have 12,000. So, they're going to shut down 8 prisons. They have a decreasing amount of crime in the country.

In contrast, the UK has 94,000 prisoners with a population of 62 million people while the Netherlands has a population of 16.2 million.
Many of the UK's prisoners are there related to marijuana. They have twice as many prisoners in regards to percentage.

The U.S. has the highest crime rate in the world. They estimate that 40% of the population could be in jail for small-time drug crimes. It's costing taxpayers billions of dollars. It also causes severe over crowding in jails and prisons.

The U.S, in stark contrast to the Netherlands, has to open more prisons often. An argument is that if Proposition 19 were to pass, the U.S. could have the chance to be like the Netherlands and begin shutting down some prisons. At the very least, it would save billions of taxpayer dollars and maybe even give more attention to bigger crimes and manpower to handle them.