Samenvatting

In 2002, the Dutch Ministry of Justice introduced the programme ‘Reducing Recidivism’ to reduce high recidivism rates among ex-prisoners. As part of this programme, a special project called ‘Follow-up care for former detainees’ was launched late 2004. Until then, little attention had been given to this topic and there had not been any organised form of cooperation between municipalities and penal institutions. In many cases the basic conditions for reintegration were not well arranged. The main aim of the project was to establish a connection between prisons and municipalities by which the basic conditions for social reintegration could be settled. First, cooperation at working level practice was established. In 2007, this practice was confirmed at a political administrative level. In doing so, a unique form of cooperation between prison services and municipalities for follow-up care for former detainees has been realised in the Netherlands.