Life behind bars gets new twist

BREDA, Netherlands — Voices echo around the magnificent, luminous dome of Breda prison, breaking the silence of the 130-year-old building, now empty of inmates like dozens of others in the Netherlands.

Falling crime rates over the last decade, as well as changing ideas about punishing criminals have robbed this penitentiary of its original purpose, and its gates clanged shut in 2014.

Metal spiral staircases snake all around the dome down to the former canteen under the glass floor. Old sports areas are marked out on concrete, all are surrounded by cells stacked four stories high, their now-rusted doors swinging open.

Unlike the previous occupants, some 90 businesses hold the keys to the building, free to come and go at will.

Miguel de Waard, co-founder of the 3 DR ed P and aV R startup, is among those who believe they have found a perfect office location, helping give new life to a protected national monument.

“We just instantly fell in love with this particular office: the high ceiling, the nice touches and the big windows and the lighting,” he said.

“We don’t see bars, I think, when we look outside, we just see a beautiful part of Breda.”

There are now only 38 prisons still in operation in the Netherlands, with 27 closed since 2014.

After leaping crime rates swelled Europe’s prison population in the 1990s, numbers in the Netherlands have dropped thanks, in part, to prevention programs and a greater focus on re integration.

In a decade, the number of people imprisoned every year in the Netherlands fell from 50,650 in 2005 to 37,790 in 2015. And the rate of incarceration stands at 57 prisoners per 100,000 residents, compared with 458 in the United States.

So the Dutch have sought to put their empty cells to good use.

One summer evening in the Breda prison, about 350 people took part in an adult adventure game in which participants have to plot an escape over three hours with the help of about 80 actors.

But once rid of these thrillseekers, the building again sank into silence. Until the next business day.

EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP Actors take part in an adventure game at Boschpoort Prison in Breda in the Netherlands, which is being transformed into offices and an entertainment venue.