Correctional institutions
XX
Birth preparation and post-natal care should be available to inmates to the same extent
that it is to women living in freedom.
XX
The correctional institutions shall ensure that pregnant inmates receive birth
preparation support from a midwife.
2.5.4.4 Rights of small children in the penal system
Small children who live with their detained mothers in correctional institutions
are not sentenced to live in prison and can leave the institution when
accompanied by a suitable person at any time. In Innsbruck correctional
institution, neither the mother of the child nor the prison guard in the mother
and child department was aware of this.
Children are not
prisoners
The NPM criticised this knowledge deficit. Advanced training has been
mandatory for all prison guards working in a mother and child department
in accordance with the decree “Minimum standards for women in Austrian
correctional institutions” (“Mindeststandards für den Frauenvollzug in
österreichsichen Anstalten”) since 2016. Nevertheless, there are still many
prison guards who have not attended this training course. The first course
only took place in the autumn of 2018.
Training needs
The Federal Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and
Justice justified the knowledge deficit with a change of staff in the department
and with the fact that children rarely live in the institution together with their
detained mothers. The ministry also made reference to the contents of basic
training and to the mandatory training courses.
XX
Staff deployed to mother and child departments should be informed about the rights of
the child.
2.5.5 Adolescents
2.5.5.1 Separate detention of adolescents and adult detainees
In addition to the special institution for adolescents in Gerasdorf and
Schwarzau correctional institution, the court prisons of Graz-Jakomini,
Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Vienna-Josefstadt currently have
juvenile departments. All of the remaining court prisons have no departments
for juvenile detention even though adolescents (particularly while awaiting
trial) can be detained in any court prison in general.
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