A vast X-shaped building marks the spot on an Amsterdam map that has brought a decade-long search to a close.

Spread across three maxed-out campuses, with almost 1,000 students on roll, the British School of Amsterdam had struggled to keep up with the capital’s growing demand for international education. That was until it found the striking 14,000m2 property, which it moved into in April.

The site had many advantages, not least its security, because − until recently – it had in fact been a prison. What is now the school’s freshly painted theatre with shiny chestnut-coloured beams was, until 2013, the prison chapel. And the mirrored dome at the building’s heart was a way to survey the four corridors branching out from it.

“We’ve kept the wings. They just worked really well for each of the school sections,” explains the school’s communication manager Lisa Harrison, who says the cheerful atmosphere in the building “surprises everyone”.

It is the latest example of prison buildings in the Netherlands being repurposed, often in socially useful ways. Just 20km away, in Haarlem, the former De Koepel prison is being converted into a multi-purpose site to include student accommodation and social housing – answering a national shortage of both.

Meanwhile in the province of Drenthe, the National Prison Museum, housed since 2005 in a former penal colony, aims to open up a nuanced conversation on crime and punishment, as well as sharing its gruesome history.

Quirkier uses have also been found. Utrecht’s Wolvenplein created a city beach within the steep walls of its exercise yard, while − before its demolition − Amsterdam’s Bijlmerbajes provided employment for some of the asylum seekers temporarily housed there, by converting 15 cells into a Syrian hammam.

As the UK embarks on its largest prison building programme in over a century, with prisoner numbers almost doubling in the last 30 years, the prison population in the Netherlands is going in the opposite direction. Apart from a small rise in the past three years, it has otherwise been steadily shrinking. Today, the incarceration rate per capita is half the UK’s; there are far fewer repeat offenders; and reported crime continues to decline. At times, the Netherlands has even resorted to importing convicts from abroad to fill its empty cells and keep some prisons open.

But while the British government dishes out the most life sentences in Europe, under the leadership of a prime minister who says he is keen to see hi-vis chain gangs introduced, the Dutch see the benefits of a less punitive approach. (Only around 30 people there are serving life sentences.)

Reeling from the Nazi occupation during the second world war, the Netherlands had “a strong sense of the dangers of an overbearing state and the horrors of imprisonment”, explains Francis Pakes, a Dutch national and professor of criminology at the University of Portsmouth. This meant that prison sentences were used more sparingly than before the war, and detainees were usually treated with greater humanity.

“In the UK, to be tough on crime is framed as a solution against a threat of disorder,” says Pakes. “Whereas in the Netherlands [historically], crime was just something the system had to respond to.” The decriminalisation of soft drug use and sex work (in 1976 and 2000 respectively) reflects this pragmatic approach, while investment in youth intervention schemes, electronic tagging, and residential care for offenders with addictions and mental health problems has promoted rehabilitation and minimised prison time.

A spiral staircase at Haarlem’s De Koepel jail, before its transformation. Image Olaf Kramer

“In the Netherlands [compared to the UK], the prisons are − by and large − better maintained, better staffed, more spacious and more decent places,” explains Pakes. These are all factors that, studies have shown, make offenders’ successful reintegration into mainstream society more likely.

Low rates of poverty, high social security and a relatively unmaterialistic culture – in the Netherlands, being unshowy about wealth and living simply are generally valued traits – all play a role in reducing crime. And, the lack of minimum sentencing means that lengthy jail spells – which Dutch research links to higher reoffending rates – are rare.

Amsterdam-based musician, author and social entrepreneur Rivelino Rigters knows at first hand the downside of incarceration. Fatherless and seeking the approval of older boys, he got caught up in drug-selling and theft, and was serving his first prison sentence at the age of 13. But prison only enhanced his criminal connections, he says. “I actually came out worse than before I went in.”

“Locking someone up is not a way to solve the problem,” Rigters insists. “Sometimes it only makes it bigger because, for some people, crime was either their last resort or there was no other way to make a living.”

Musician, author and social entrepreneur Rivelino Rigters has spent time in jail but now mentors prisoners. Image: Hazazah Photography

Instead, Rigters’ organisation Criminal Minded, which mentors current and ex-prisoners to access the skills and networks they need to rebuild their lives, is typical of the more personalised approaches now being trialled. It focuses on offenders’ “strengths, talents and possibilities” and “what needs to be healed in order for them to take positive steps forward”.

The prison-based model of justice may have served its time, believes Pakes. “What you find in the Netherlands when you talk to senior police officers, prosecutors or judges, is that very few people have anything positive to say about the effect of imprisonment,” he says. “Nobody really believes it works.

“We now know better that if you want to turn those lives around, simply being punitive is not going to cut it,” Pakes concludes. “It needs something much more wholesome than that.”

Three repurposed Dutch prisons

1. A night in the nick – the hotel and restaurant

In the city of Roermond, buildings now occupied by the Hotel Het Arresthuis and its Michelin-starred restaurant Damianz formed a state prison from 1863 to 2007. It detained mostly drug smugglers and illegal immigrants in its final years. Grouped around original cast iron stairways and balconies, the rooms range from ‘comfort cells’ to a luxurious suite.

Hotel Het Arresthuis in Roermond. Image: Hotel Het Arresthuis.

2. The lock-up that’s looking up – the business centre and library

The moated entrance and formidable spires of the Blokhuispoort prison in the city of Leeuwarden now welcome visitors to a cultural business centre. It’s designed to boost investment in a province with the lowest GDP nationally. The Alibi hostel, with its barred windows, offers affordable accommodation, while the transformation of the prison chapel into the city’s central library was completed earlier this year.

3. Gluttons for punishment – the escape game

Beneath the gigantic panopticon of Boschpoort penitentiary, a cast of 80 actors lead 400 ‘inmates’ in orange scrubs through an adrenaline-filled escape experience. Elsewhere in and around the building – rebranded the FutureDome – spaces have been used as a meeting centre for people with autism, temporary housing, a pop-up theatre and an ice rink.

Main image: The former Boschpoort prison in the city of Breda is now the FutureDome entertainment venue. Credit: Prison Escape.

Culled from Positive.News

A review of Prof. Rogers Makanjuola’s book by Segun Adeniyi

THE JULY 10 1999 CULT ATTACK ON OAU CAMPUS

On Saturday, 7 March 1999, a group of Black Axe members held a meeting in Ife town. After the meeting, they drove back to the campus. On the main road, Road 1, leading into the campus, they were overtaken by some students in another car. For whatever reason, they were enraged and gave chase to the students. The students, seeing them in pursuit, raced hastily to the car park outside Angola Hall and ran into the adjacent Awolowo Hall for safety.

The Students’ Union, which had also received information that secret cult members were gathering in a house in the senior staff quarters, mobilised in response to the incident. Led by George Iwilade, the Secretary-General, a group of them drove to the house, officially occupied by Mr. F.M. Mekoma, and forced their way into the boys’ quarters. They found nine individuals inside, eight of them students of the University, with a submachine gun, a locally manufactured gun, an axe, a bayonet and the black clothing and regalia of the Black Axe cult.

The University authorities were informed, and the members of the secret cult were handed over to the Police. They were held in police custody and taken to the Chief Magistrate’s Court where two weeks later they were granted bail.

The case was heard on 31 March, and to the utmost amazement of everyone, the Chief Magistrate discharged and acquitted the arrested individuals. The students who had apprehended the cult members were not called as witnesses. The investigating police officer, Corporal Femi Adewoye, claimed that the witnesses could not be located and actually stated in Court, “I tried to contact the complainants in this case, all to no avail.

To date, there is no complainant in the case. Since all the accused persons denied the allegations against them and there is no complainant, there is no way the allegations can be proved.” This was the submission of the prosecuting police officer! Usually, in such cases, witness’ summons were served through the University Administration but this did not happen. The trial was concluded in two court appearances in eight days.

The Chief Magistrate also ordered that the submachine gun be sent to the police armourer and the other exhibits be destroyed, thus eliminating all the evidence, and making it impossible to re-open the case. The Judicial Enquiry recommended that the Magistrate be reported to the Judicial Commission for appropriate disciplinary action. Nothing came of this, as nothing came of all the other recommendations of that Panel.

After the arrests of the cult members, the University, under pressure from the students, issued a release suspending them without serving them with letters of suspension. Shortly afterwards, the University was closed as a result of a student crisis. When it re-opened three months later, the cult members returned to the campus and were seen attending lectures. The students raised an alarm once more. In response to this, the University issued a release on 2 July re-affirming the suspensions of the cult members.

The letters of suspension were dated 8 July and it is doubtful whether those affected actually received them before the tragic events two days later. Even then, one of the students, Bruno Arinze, was left out. I eventually suspended him on 23 July.

The cult involved in the episode of 7 March was the Black Axe. Four major reasons have been advanced as to the genesis leading to the mayhem on 10 July. One, to which I subscribe, was that the Black Axe was avenging the humiliating treatment of its members by the Student Union leaders in March 1999.

On the night of 9 July 1999, the Kegites, members of the Palm Wine Drinkers’ Club, held a “gyration” (party) in the cafeteria of Awolowo Hall. The party was in full swing, when, at around 3.30am (now 10 July), a group of masked individuals, wearing black clothing, drove through the main gate and proceeded to the car park next to the Tennis Courts in the Sports Centre. They disembarked there and went on foot along a bush path to Awolowo Hall, where they violently interrupted the gyration, firing guns and also wielding axes and cutlasses.

The group was probably all young men, although there is a persistent story of at least one woman among them. Some of the partygoers were shot, though none of them was killed. The partygoers ran for their lives, a few actually throwing themselves through glass doors.

A group of the gunmen chased the partygoers as far as Mozambique Hall. Other groups proceeded to the rooms. They first entered Room 184, where they shot and killed Efe Ekede, a Part II Psychology student. In Room 230, they shot Charles Ita, a Part II Law student. A group of the attackers then shot Yemi Ajiteru, a Part II Religious Studies student, through the head in the corridor outside the Kegites’ headquarters. In Room 273, they found George Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of the Students’ Union and a Law student, and shot him through the head, along with another occupant, Tunde Oke, a Part 1 student of Philosophy, who was shot in the abdomen.

When the attackers got to Room 271, the room allocated to the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre Adeleke (Legacy), they found that he had escaped. Legacy was in his room when he heard the first gun shots. He hurriedly went to his door, looked out, and saw two of the attackers on the next floor, firing shots. He ran back into his room and broke through the partition of the kitchenette into the next room’s kitchenette. He heard them shouting, “Legacy, come out!” and escaped into the next room. During the course of the incident, the attackers also shouted the names of “Afrika”, George Iwilade, and “Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, demanding that they come out.

The band of thugs proceeded to Fajuyi Hall on foot, where they shot and killed one more student. That individual, Eviano Ekelemo, a medical student, was certainly not a student activist, but they shot him anyway. The murderers left Fajuyi Hall on foot and went through the bush path behind the Hall back to their vehicles. They drove to the Students’ Union building, which they ransacked.

They returned to their vehicles and drove out of the University through the main gate. The security staff, having heard gunfire, fled for their lives. Thus the exit of the marauding thugs was unchallenged.

The students with gunshot wounds were taken to the Health Centre and from there to the Teaching Hospital. Tunde Oke was still alive but died on the operating table. Four others, George Iwilade, Yemi Ajiteru, Efe Ekede and Eviano Ekelemu, were brought in dead. Eviano Ekelemu bled to death from gunshot wounds to the groin and thigh. The other three died from gunshot wounds to the head. In each case, the weapons used were shotguns, fired at close range. Charles Ita and five others who were shot in the Awolowo Hall cafeteria, survived. Twenty-five others received minor injuries, which were sustained during the stampede out of the Awolowo Hall cafeteria and later on during the attack.

In the aftermath of the attack, the whole university was enveloped in fear and there was chaos in the halls of residence. However, within a short time, the President of the Students’ Union, Lanre Adeleke, was able to restore order and mobilise his colleagues. The students went to the town searching for the perpetrators in locations where cult members were thought to be living. They “arrested” three individuals and brought them back to Awolowo Hall. These were Aisekhaghe Aikhile, a Part I student of Agricultural Economics, Emeka Ojuagu, and Frank Idahosa (Efosa). Efosa and Ojuagu were arrested in a public transport vehicle that was about to leave Ife.

The students exhibited black clothing, two berets and two T-shirts, that had been found in Ojuagu’s bag, which was claimed to be the Black Axe uniform. Efosa was a known member of the Black Axe. He had been expelled from the University of Benin and was later admitted for a diploma programme in Local Government Studies in Ife. The three of them were savagely beaten and tortured in the Awolowo Hall “Coffee Room”, the traditional venue for such events. The inverted commas have been employed because coffee had not been known to be served there for many years. Efosa and Oguagu are said to have confessed to participating in the attacks during their “interrogation”, and Efosa is said to have gone further to state that the attack was organised to avenge the humiliating treatment of the Black Axe members who had been arrested in Mr. Mekoma’s house on 7 March.

In the course of the interrogation, Aisekhaghe Aikhile died, and his body was taken to the hospital mortuary. The interrogations also yielded the information that 22 Black Axe members were involved, six from the University, four from the University of Lagos, four from the University of Ibadan, and eight from the University of Calabar. There was also a separate claim that more students from the University of Benin were also involved.

The VC, Professor Wale Omole, had been out of the country on 10 July 1999, the day of the attack and in his absence, the Deputy VC (Academic), Professor A.E. Akingbohungbe, was in charge. Soon after his arrival, the VC was summoned to Abuja to give a report of the incident the day after he returned to campus. On 14 July, his suspension was announced by the Government. It was against this background that I was tracked to the UK and summoned to return immediately and assume duty as the acting VC of the University.

When I arrived on the campus on 18 July, I promised the students and the rest of the university community, that the university would do everything in its power to bring the perpetrators to justice. I took this undertaking extremely seriously.

The first step was to visit the Commissioner of Police, Mr. J.C. Nwoye, in Osogbo. I raised the issue of the nine individuals who had been arrested in March and discharged by the Chief Magistrate. He promised that a vigorous and thorough investigation was in progress on the matter. He then expressed concern that the University authorities had not officially reported the murders to the Police despite repeated requests. On my return to the University, I wrote the required letter, once more indicating our strong fears concerning a connection between the March episode and the murders, and requesting that the nine individuals involved be re-arrested.

A total of 12 individuals were arrested and charged to court over the three weeks following the murders, including Efosa and Ojuagu. Only one of those involved in the March episode was among those arrested. The other eight could not be located. Two of them had obtained their transcripts and resumed their studies in France. The students brought information on the whereabouts of a major suspect, Babatunde Kazeem (Kato), and we provided a vehicle so that the Police could go with the students to the address in Lagos and arrest him. Kato was a former student who had been “advised to withdraw” from the University as a result of academic failure. He had been apprehended by the Students’ Union in August 1997 when he admitted to being a secret cult member.

He was subsequently handed over to the Security Department, but there is no record of what happened after that. We also provided the Police with information on three other individuals, “Innocent”, “Yuletide” and “Ogbume.” Sadly, nothing came of this, even though we provided Ogbume’s address in Victoria Garden City, Lagos. The arrested persons were charged to the Ile-Ife Magistrate’s court for the murders.

The Judicial Commission of Enquiry was eventually inaugurated in Abuja on 18 October, but did not start work until 24 November, and eventually arrived in the University on Sunday, 28 November. The Chairman was Justice Okoi Itam. There were six other members, including Professor Jadesola Akande, an experienced and highly respected academic and university administrator, and Ray Ekpu, the journalist. Ms. Turi Akerele was later deployed as legal counsel to the Commission. A flamboyant but highly capable alumnus, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, led a team representing the students.

The Commission’s report was submitted in February 2000 and was released, along with the Government’s white paper, later that year. The Commission expressed its strong belief that seven named individuals had participated in the killings—Frank Idahosa (Efosa), Didi Yuletide, Kazeem Bello (Kato), and four individuals who were identified only by their nicknames or Christian names—Innocent, Athanasius, “Ochuko”, and “Chunk.” The last was identified as the then head of the Black Axe secret cult. The Commission also recommended the investigation of 16 other individuals, including Emeka Oguaju and the nine involved in the 7 March episode.

The Panel criticised the police investigation of the case and recommended that the Inspector-General of Police should set up a special task force to take it over. I have already mentioned the recommendations concerning the Chief Magistrate who hastily tried and acquitted the 7 March culprits, as well as Efosa’s lawyer.

It took me several months, and a number of visits to Abuja, to obtain the Commission’s report and the White Paper. Dissatisfied with the progress of the court cases, and armed with the report, I visited the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige. After I had expressed my concerns over the case and highlighted the Commission’s recommendations concerning its investigation, he assured me that, although the case was being prosecuted by the Osun State Attorney-General’s office, his Ministry would work with that office. He sent for the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Musiliu Smith, who agreed that he would immediately establish the recommended special task force. This he did, and a senior police officer, ACP Tonye Ibitibituwa, soon arrived in Osogbo with a team.

However, in spite of the efforts of this task force, no further arrests were made. We also liaised with the Osun State Attorney-General, who assured us that his office was seriously following up the case. I must say that he did personally prosecute the case.

As I have stated, the cases against those charged in the Chief Magistrate’s Court for belonging to an illegal organisation eventually came to nothing. However, we were very hopeful of a successful prosecution of the murder cases against Efosa and company. The case in the Osogbo High Court, which commenced on 9 April 2001, wound on. Evidence for the prosecution was taken from a number of students and some other witnesses. There was adjournment after adjournment. In mid-2002, the Judge hearing the case was transferred to Iwo, and the case along with it. There was a further delay while the exhibits were also subsequently taken to Iwo. To the amazement of everyone, the Judge upheld a “No Case” submission by the defence on 5 November 2002. The three accused persons were released and they subsequently disappeared…

NOTE: What the foregoing, which is just an abridged version of Prof. Makanjuola’s very detailed account of the tragedy, reveals very clearly is that it is indeed very easy for people to get away with murder in our country. And that has contributed to the culture of impunity that we witness today