Dutch detention is under pressure: chronic staff shortages, persistent recidivism, and a system that has to deliver both justice and rehabilitation at the same time. For the Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen (DJI), the question is no longer how to manage today, but how to stay viable fifteen years from now. At Justitieel Complex Zaanstad, our team developed a strategic framework for the long term: a model that holds justice and rehabilitation in balance, while staying adaptable to social, technological, and environmental shifts. We worked through a structured, multi-method design process, combining research, scenario thinking, and co-creation with people inside the system.

The outcome was a set of adaptable directions for DJI to act on now, rather than a single fixed plan, because the only certainty across fifteen years is that the context will keep moving.