Germany: Juvenile's murder highlights prison conditions
01 August 2006
In November 2006, a young prisoner was tortured to death by inmates. His death coincided with a debate over German prison conditions, which are predicted to worsen after the transfer of competencies from the federal to regional states. This will see varying implementations of court sentences in different regional states, a development that legal experts, trade unions, churches and many politicians criticise for undermining the principle of harmonised punishment. Criminologists and civil liberties campaigners also warn that taking prison remits out of federal hands will give an opportunity for regional state governments trying to portray their parties as tough on criminal prosecution. In 2003, then interior minister of Hamburg, Roland Koch, was re-elected with the promise that after the reform he would introduce the toughest prison regime in the country.
The 20 year old, who was imprisoned in JVA Siegburg, was murdered by cellmates between 11 and 12 November after they allegedly had beaten and raped him for hours in their cell before forcing him to hang himself in the shower to feign suicide. The three perpetrators are 17, 19 and 20 years old and have been charged with murder, serious bodily harm and rape. The prison authority was criticised because the victim was able to trigger the cell's alarm system but the prison officers were allegedly told by the victim's inmates that the incident had been an accident and they apparently did not detect the abuse. The public prosecution has begun preliminary investigations to identify any responsibility on behalf of the prison authorities; the head of the JVS Siegburg, known for its old-style approach to punishment rather than reintegration, has been transferred.
The murder, however, seems to highlight the deeper problem of prison conditions, harassment and lack of care. One month after the incident, two young people tried to commit suicide; a 21 and a 22 year old who were on medication had collected their pills for a month. They were discovered before they died and hospitalised.
In June, the Federal Constitutional Court used a negative judgement (on a constitutional complaint by a prisoner against disciplinary measures taken against him in prison) to criticise the lack of specific legal regulations for juvenile detention. The court pointed out that young prisoners should receive different treatment from adults because they were "biologically, psychologically and socially in a state of transition which is typically [related to] tension, insecurities and difficulties to adapt". The court pointed out that youth crime was often related to peer pressure and that incarceration and solitary environment had a more destructive effect on them. More emphasis should therefore be given to offering training and education possibilities as well as longer visiting hours and the use of sports facilities. However, now that prisons have come under the remit of the states, regional governments have already said that they are unwilling to pay the costs for reintegration measures as demanded by the court.
Alongside the lack of social care and reintegration measures, there is the problem of overcrowding. In September 2006, one month before the murder, the JVA Siegburg, which was built for 649 inmates, was holding 715 prisoners. In some federal states one social worker has to take care of 100 prisoners. Although the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee urged in 2003 that juvenile prisons should provide adequate support for suicidal prisoners, the standard answer to self-harm by prison authorities is to use group cells. Germany has a prison population of around 80,000 and except for Bremen, Brandenburg and Hamburg, all federal states' prisons are overcrowded.
The tendency in Germany, similar to that in the UK and modelled on the US prison system, is to increasingly privatise the prison system. The state of Hesse introduced a partially privatised prison at Hünfeld in December 2005,