VISITS BY THE JOINT COMMISSION 4 – COURT HOLDING CELLS 4.1 – VISIT TO THE COURT HOLDING CELLS AT BERLIN-TIERGARTEN LOCAL COURT IN 2012 4.1.1 – Recommendations of the Joint Commission and response of the Berlin Senate Department for Justice On 14 December 2012 the Joint Commission visited the court holding cells at Berlin-Tiergarten Local Court, which are in the same building as BerlinMoabit Criminal Court. The Joint Commission spoke with the VicePresident of the Local Court, the supervising judge and with staff in the Central Security Service. It then inspected the court holding cells and spoke with three detainees. Berlin-Tiergarten Local Court is responsible for delivering prisoners to all the authorities in the BerlinMoabit Criminal Court building. These include the Local Court, Berlin Regional Court, Berlin Public Prosecution Office, the Berlin District Attorney and the panels of the Berlin Court of Appeal sitting in the Criminal Court as a court of first instance. Around 70 people can be accommodated in the court holding cells. Some 11,000 detainees are held there over the course of a year. The court holding cells serve as a “way station” for prisoners who are either waiting for their hearing on that same day or who need to be transported back to a facility after their hearing is interrupted or ends. The majority of prisoners are brought from the adjacent Moabit Prison, sometimes they are also brought from other prisons or by the police. The Central Security Service was established at the President of the Local Court in 2008 and is responsible for security throughout the whole of Berlin-Moabit Prison. Nearly 240 police constables work in the security area of the Local Court, between eight and ten of whom are assigned to the court holdings cells on a permanent basis. The training programme which all the police constables in judicial service regularly take part in is regarded as exemplary. The programme covers custody-specific issues, such as de-escalation training, dealing with aggression, stress management, intercultural skills, oral communication skills and escorting prisoners. The court holding cell section is to be completely restructured. A separate office is to be created for members of staff and appropriate accommodation is to be created for prisoners. In particular, the meals counter is to be brought in line with hygiene standards. The single holding cells have a floor area of 2.3 m2. Their windows are covered with frosted glass films. Prisoners who are brought from Moabit Prison can be led directly via an underground tunnel into the court holding cell section. They are generally detained for significantly less than an hour. Prisoners from other prisons, by contrast, have to spend longer in the holding cells (up to around four hours), depending on the availability of transportation. Detention rooms in prisons are generally required to have a minimum floor area of 6 to 7 m2 per person. Lower Saxony regards a minimum area of 3.5 m2 per person to still be appropriate for police holding cells used only for a few 51 hours. Even if they are only detained for a short time, prisoners should at least be able to stand up and move around in the cell. This is not possible in a cell measuring 2.3 m2 which also has a built-in bench. That is why the Joint Commission welcomes the fact that the floor area of the holding cells is to be doubled in the course of refurbishment by merging two cells in each case. However, care should be taken to ensure that prisoners can also see out through a window. Therefore, alternatives to the opaque frosted glass film should be considered. Response: Single holding cells will be merged in the course of refurbishment and the new cells will then have a floor area of at least 4.6 m2. The frosted glass film which was only used in the holding area for women will be removed, as women are now placed in another area which is not visible from the outside. In addition, the President of the Local Court has announced that all the windows in the court holding section will be refurbished as their current mode of construction means they cannot be cleaned. The multi-occupancy cells for men do not have a toilet. Prisoners are taken to a separate toilet at their request. The multi-occupancy cells for women, by contrast, have an open toilet. The Local Court has a partition wall which is around hip-high for use in these cells. This does not permit the toilet to be used in a manner which meets any standards of decency, however, firstly on account of the ensuing noise and odour and, secondly, because the low partition wall does not sufficiently protect the person using the toilet from being watched by the other detainees. A separate toilet therefore also needs to be installed for women to use. 51 85 No. 17.2 of the Lower Saxony Police Custody Regulations (2008)