Investigating human rights utilise a specialist in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry to evaluate or treat addicted minors. Moreover, the institution’s treating physician did not see any indication that the minors should be seen by a specialist in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry at any time during their treatment. Therefore, this was not done. Nationwide investigative proceedings Reinforced by the observations of the commissions during their visits to the Innsbruck correctional institution and the Gerasdorf correctional institution, the AOB initiated a nationwide investigative proceeding regarding paediatric and adolescent psychiatric care in correctional institutions. Psychiatric care to be provided as soon as possible As a result, the AOB recommended that the Federal Ministry of Justice make every effort to quickly ensure that the psychiatric care of adolescents and young adults in detention pending trial and in prison and detention for mentally ill offenders is provided by specialists for paediatric and adolescent psychiatry (see also chapter 5.5.2). The AOB assumes that there are differences in the psychiatric diagnosis, establishment of indications and treatment of adolescents as compared to that in “adult psychiatry” due to the adolescent’s stage of development and strong integration into family and social systems. Therefore, basic knowledge of adolescent development is an important prerequisite for creating treatment plans. Moreover, as compared to the pharmacological treatment of adults, a series of important differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics must be taken into account with adolescents. Need for specialised expertise in addiction The AOB stressed to the Federal Ministry of Justice that there is a very urgent need for specialists in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry when adolescents are addicted. As with the general care of mentally ill adolescents, special expertise is needed to deal with the special diagnosis of “addiction in minors”. This relates both to the question of indication and to the choice of a suitable substitution, if substitution therapy seems appropriate. Office of the medial superintendent: need for psychiatric expertise The AOB was critical of the fact that the office of the medical superintendent in the general directorate for prisons and detention of the Federal Ministry of Justice is only staffed by a general practitioner and a dentist, so that the psychiatric care of inmates and detainees is not supervised by a specialist in psychiatry or paediatric and adolescent psychiatry. Even more regrettable is the statement of the Federal Ministry of Justice that it cannot promise that a psychiatrist or a specialist in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry will be appointed to the office of the medical superintendent. The AOB considers it indispensable for the office of the medical superintendent to utilise a specialist in (paediatric and adolescent) psychiatry to assess the psychiatric care of inmates and detainees. 78