National Preventive Mechanism 2.5 Correctional institutions 2.5.1 Introduction The commissions conducted 30 visits to prisons and facilities for the detention of mentally ill offenders during the reporting period. As in the previous year, systemic weaknesses were evident. These problem areas were monitored with the aim of detecting systemic deficits that spanned the various facilities and making proposals for improvement. A number of individual cases relate to deficits with respect to the detention of mentally ill offenders, which is why the commissions focused on this area again this year. Despite the many deficits found, it should not be forgotten that the visit reports continue to contain positive findings as well. Each of these observations is sent to the Federal Ministry of Justice with the request to pass this feedback on to the individual institutions and facilities. For an example, please see the final case in this part of the report. 2.5.2 System-related problem areas Personnel shortages and their consequences – long hours held in inmate cells and sparse employment opportunities Night time lock-up before noon Based on the observations of the previous year when personnel shortages were often encountered, the NPM has carried out system-wide examinations of when inmates are held in cells in Austria’s correctional institutions in order to explain lengthy lock-up times. The results showed that, of the 28 correctional institutions (not including the field offices, which are favoured in this respect), inmates are locked up already at 11.15 a.m. on weekends and holidays in three prisons (Eisenstadt, Hirtenberg and Vienna-Mittersteig). In the Krems, Ried, Stein and Wr. Neustadt facilities, inmates are locked up at 11.45 a.m. on these days. In Klagenfurt, Suben, St. Pölten and ViennaSimmering they are locked up at noon. The NPM considers such long periods of time to be dramatic. Such lengthy lock-up times are accompanied by unstructured daily routines and lead, in particular, to the overcrowding of inmate cells, which is frequently observed. The danger of assaults is particularly high during these periods of time. Dreary daily routine fuels aggression 134 Sparse employment opportunities exacerbate the situation. In the absence of work and a reasonable daily structure, even more time is spent in the sections and rooms where inmates are confined. Thus, when Commission 2 visited the Linz correctional institution, it noted long lock-up times for inmates had no employment (22.5 hours a day) as well as the sparse opportunities for employment in general. On the day of the commission’s visit, slightly more than a quarter of the 225 inmates (i.e. 65 inmates) had work.