Samenvatting

The Dutch government implemented a new youth justice system in the Caribbean part of the Netherlands (BES) in 2020 by adding a new title to the Criminal Code BES with specific provisions concerning juveniles along with an implementation decree that assigned new responsibilities to the partner organisations of that system. The new youth justice system introduced youth detention as a custodial sentence for young offenders and provides a legal basis for the use of diversion. With the aim to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of the new youth justice system, a study on the feasibility of a monitor was conducted in order to carefully follow the implementation of the new system. This article reports the findings from the study performed in 2020, prior to the implementation, and a reflection on the two years since.