Annual Report 2019 Consequently, a complete picture of the situation was lacking and opportunities to accommodate the perpetrator at an appropriate location were missed. Life sentence prisoners Since the introduction of the Life Sentence Advisory Board Decree (Besluit Adviescollege Levenslanggestraften) in 2017, a new policy has been implemented providing for a reassessment of every life sentence prisoner 25 years after the start of pretrial detention. During the first 25 years of detention, life sentence prisoners only take part in standard activities, such as sports and possibly work. Life sentence prisoners are not entitled to leave or reintegration activities throughout this period. If a detainee has been in detention for 25 years, the Life Sentence Advisory Board issues advice on whether a life sentence prisoner may work on their potential return to society. By the end of 2019, the Minister of Justice and Security had not granted permission to any life sentence prisoners to work on reintegration. The Commissions of Oversight monitored this situation in 2019 and handled complaints from detainees. They expect the number of life sentence prisoners to rise in the years ahead. Combined with allocation across more locations, this is expected to increase the workload of penitentiary institutions. Terrorist detention units The Inspectorate of Justice and Security, which is part of the NPM, issued a positive assessment on the manner in which prison staff perform their duties at the two specialist terrorist detention units (terroristenafdelingen) 2. The terrorist detention units, the Dutch Probation Service and the municipalities were judged to be undertaking sufficient efforts to prepare detainees for a responsible return to society. The units endeavour to induce detainees to abandon their extremist ideology during their detention period. Whether these efforts ultimately lead to the renunciation of radical ideology, and whether they contribute to a safe return to society, is impossible to say for certain. In order to form an opinion on this topic, long-term research will need to be conducted. Security measures aimed at preventing the further radicalisation of detainees apply at these terrorist detention units. The detainees are held in groups of no more than five. This enables staff to foster good relations and hence keep a watchful eye on them in the interests of internal and external safety and security. Depending on 2 The terrorist detention units are located in the prisons in Vught and in De Schie (Rotterdam). The Vught terrorist detention unit can accommodate 41 people and the De Schie terrorist detention unit can accommodate seven. At the time of the investigation in autumn 2018, 31 detainees were accommodated in Vught and five in De Schie. Suspects and individuals convicted of a terrorist offence, both men and women, can be placed in a terrorist detention unit. 5 Table of conte