Bijlmerbajes
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The Bijlmerbajes is a prison in Amsterdam near the Amstel station. The official name is Penitentiaire Inrichting Over-Amstel, although it is also known as Penitentiaire Inrichting De Stadspoort or Penitentiaire Inrichtingen Amsterdam.
The building was designed as a humane prison without bars over the windows and was opened in 1978. However it turned out that the glass of the windows wasn't completely unbreakable, so bars were retrospectively fitted, known as lamellen. The complex consists of 6 towers with small divisions. The towers are connected underground by a tunnel through the prison, known as the Kalverstraat. The entrance to the prison is 50 metres from the Spaklerweg metrostation.
The alliterative name Bijlmerbajes was presumably acquired because the tower complex was constructed at the same time as highrise construction in the neighbouring Bijlmermeer, with bajes a Dutch slang term for "prison".
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