JUVENILE PENAL INSTITUTIONS Afterwards the delegation visited the social therapy unit, the prison blocks, the admissions area and the depository, the visiting area and the work area. Wriezen Prison is responsible for enforcing youth imprisonment and pre-trial detention against male juveniles and young adults. It has a capacity of 198, and was holding 118 prisoners at the time of the visit. Humane conditions of detention mean that those who are sick must receive adequate medical care, where necessary also by transferring them to a facility which is appropriate given their clinical picture. Where a prisoner suffering from a mental illness requires medical treatment, this should be provided in a ward or clinic which is adequately equipped and has 36 appropriately trained staff. Response: The provision of care to prisoners in the criminal justice system as well as the relevant follow-up care following release both need improving across the whole of Germany. The Ministers of Justice of the Länder have therefore resolved to ask the involved Land ministries to support the criminal justice system in fulfilling its obligation to create the structures to ensure that mentally sick prisoners are treated in line with the relevant guidelines and to incorporate them into appropriate care systems after their release. Irrespective of this, prisons in Brandenburg all have registered contract doctors specialising in psychiatry who can be called in when required. In addition, a cooperation agreement was concluded in 2009 with the Asklepios Specialist Clinic in Brandenburg in respect of providing in-patient psychiatric care to mentally sick prisoners in a psychiatric ward in Brandenburg an der Havel Prison. Follow-up care can be provided in the prisons in the form of psychotherapies, whose provision is set down by law (section 26, Prison Act of Brandenburg). Up until now juvenile prisoners in Wriezen Prison requiring psychiatric treatment have been accommodated in a local psychiatric facility. Young adults can, however, also be transferred to the psychiatric ward in Brandenburg an der Havel Prison. In order to be able to provide an appropriate range of services for juvenile prisoners under the age of 18, there are plans to conclude an additional agreement with the Asklepios Specialist Clinic in Brandenburg to cover the provision of specialist medical treatment by its child and youth psychiatrists. At the moment, the Ministry is planning to propose that the prison set up a “sheltered residential group” for mentally sick prisoners. This “sheltered residential group” is to be suitably equipped for juvenile prisoners who require follow-up psychiatric care and for those whose condition is being managed by means of medication or who are in need of special treatment. Since May 2014 all those members of staff in Wriezen Prison who registered an interest have been undergoing training as part of a special project run by specialists in which they are learning how to deal with young prisoners with personality disorders. The walls of two of the detention rooms inspected in the admission unit were covered with graffiti. It should be ensured that the detention rooms have a homely appearance. Response: These detention rooms are in the pre-trial detention unit. The walls in that unit are often covered with 2.3.1 – Recommendations and response Each of the specially secured rooms is monitored using two cameras. In addition, the doors are fitted with peepholes and windows which can be shut using a flap. The cameras, peepholes and windows also provide an unrestricted view of the toilet. Even when they are placed in a specially secured room, the decent treatment of people deprived of their liberty requires that measures be taken to protect their private and intimate sphere. Their genital area should be protected by, for example, partially pixellating the camera image. In addition, visibility of the specially secured room through the window should be restricted in such a manner that the toilet is not in full view. Only where there is an acute danger of self-harm or suicide does it appear conceivable, in carefully considered, substantiated and documented individual cases, to permit unrestricted monitoring of the specially secured room. The person concerned must at any rate be informed of the fact that optical 35 surveillance is in operation. Response: It was already decided following the Joint Commission’s report subsequent to its visit to Brandenburg an der Havel Prison on 28 August 2012 that computer software would be used to pixellate detainees’ genital area on screen. However, where required, especially in cases where there is a risk of suicide, it should be possible to reverse the pixellation. These plans are currently being implemented. As regards the fact that the entire cell is visible through the window, a solution is currently being sought to prevent the toilet being in full view. According to the prison, any structural changes are to be completed by late August 2014. Since the cameras are visible to prisoners, no special reference has previously been made to the fact that optical surveillance is in operation. In her meeting with the Joint Commission, the prison psychologist reported difficulties, in some cases quite considerable, when it came to accommodating mentally sick prisoners in psychiatric hospitals. These prisoners are generally released from the hospital and returned to the prison only a short while after their medication regime has been adjusted. However, the prison is not equipped to accommodate prisoners suffering from mental illness. 35 36 see National Agency, Annual Report 2013, p. 27–28 37 see also CPT Standards, CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 - Rev. 2013, p. 41