On Sint Maarten, 136 convicted criminals have been sent home. They cannot serve their sentences because the prison has run out of capacity. This is evident from questions that members of the House of Representatives of D66 have put to the Minister of Justice. A new penitentiary is being built on the island. The MPs want to know when it will be ready.
Point Blanche Prison is outdated and the facilities are not up to the standard of the Kingdom. Eighty men and seven women are now staying there. Roughly half have been convicted of minor offenses and are serving a first conviction.
The MPs ask the Minister of Justice to enter into talks with the government of Sint Maarten to solve the acute problem. They also want to know whether there are possibilities for detainees elsewhere in the Kingdom to serve their sentences.
See a post from 2019:
Cockroaches and no medical help in Sint Maarten prison (VIDEO)
