Patients living in a secure unit in a psychiatric clinic in the Frisian town of Oostrum have easy access to mobile phones, drugs, cigarettes and knives, according to a report by public television company EO.

The Dit is de dag report, due to be broadcast on Wednesday evening, includes mobile phone film footage made by the inmates even though phones and contact with the outside world is banned.

In one film, an inmate is seen wielding a butcher’s knife. Another shows a pile of cigarette packets and substances the inmates claim to be heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and hashish.

Dangers

Residents claim the contraband is delivered to them by corrupt guards and that they made the footage to alert people to the dangers they are facing, the EO says.

Inmate Oene is quoted as saying: ‘It is a ticking time bomb…. We won’t be thanked for having contact with you but we are prepared to be placed in the isolation cells.’

Another inmate, who has spent 21 years in psychiatric (tbs) clinics said: ‘This message has to reach The Hague. Things can’t go on like this. This clinic has to be shut down.’

In February, magazine Vrij Nederland wrote about problems at the Rooyse Wissel clinic, based on reports by a former worker.

Clinic officials declined to comment on camera about the claims, the EO reports but issued a statement saying: ‘We are convinced our policy offers sufficient guarantee of a safe treatment climate for patients and staff’.