Junior justice minister Fred Teeven wants the courts to make greater use of the option to detain repeat offenders in special clinics for treatment.

The Netherlands has special detention centres known as ISDs where repeat offenders, mainly drug addicts who shoplift and break into homes and cars, can get specialist help.

However, only 10% of people who are eligible for this form of detention are sent to an ISD centre, Teeven says. To qualify, you need to have committed at least 10 crimes. Last year, 197 people were sent to an ISD centre.

The system is effective in terms of treatment, the minister is quoted as saying. In addition, locking up a repeat offender means, on average, eight fewer crimes, he is quoted as saying by website nu.nl.