PRE-DEPORTATION DETENTION FACILITIES Mühldorf Prison as an “inadequate visiting area”. In addition to creating a more friendly atmosphere and removing the partition walls, it should be ensured that detainees awaiting deportation and their visitors are given a certain amount of privacy during visits. The solution provided for in the Strategy for Transforming Mühldorf Prison is that mobile office cabins are to be set up in the prison farmyard. Rooms could then be made available to the specialist services and nongovernmental organisations, which have so far not had sufficient office space. At the moment, male detainees awaiting deportation have neither a common room nor a communal kitchen on their landings. According to the Strategy for Transforming Mühldorf Prison, both a common room and a communal kitchen with refrigerators are to be installed in the cellar for detainees awaiting deportation to use. Computers are to be set up in the corner of the common room. The Joint Commission would like to make recommendations regarding the following issues which are not addressed in the Strategy for Transforming Mühldorf Prison: The delegation was informed during its visit that a doctor visits the facility once a week to provide medical care to detainees awaiting deportation. The doctor was responsible for examining detainees on admission, it was told. He can also be called in at any time, if required. Further, it was reported that no interpreter was generally called in during the medical exam. Given the facility’s rural location, it was not easy to get interpreters. Whenever required, though, an interpreter was called in, the Commission was told. The initial examination should be done as soon as possible after admission to Mühldorf Prison. The fact that, in extreme cases, it is not done until a week after detainees have been admitted is also worrying given the need to identify traumatisation and other mental disorders. Detention should not be detrimental to the health of detainees awaiting deportation. Where people are already traumatised, however, detention will generally lead to their health deteriorating. That is why any signs indicating that a person may be traumatised must be reliably identified upon admission to detention. Only professionals with the relevant training will be able to do this. The Joint Commission therefore recommends carrying out the initial medical examination as soon as possible, examining whether staff employed need to undergo specialist training in regard to trauma and arranging for the relevant measures to be implemented. An interpreter should 62 always be called in where language problems arise. 62 Response: The initial medical examination is done at the earliest on the day on which a detainee is admitted and six days after admission at the latest. Where those providing close supervision, namely general prison staff, social workers, representatives of refugee aid services and private volunteers, already notice signs before the initial medical examination is done of an acute need for action, these are immediately followed up by consulting the duty or on-call doctor or by describing the situation to a local doctor or an external hospital. As regards mental or psychological illnesses, reference is here made to the close cooperation with the Inn Salzach Clinic (which specialises in psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychosomatic medicine and neurology). In addition, a psychologist employed by Landshut Prison is available in acute cases. It is currently being examined whether an additional member of staff could be hired (i.e. a psychologist who would be on hand in the facility) also and especially so as to be able to diagnose mental illnesses which are not readily discernible at an early stage. External interpreters should always be called in where necessary to aid communication. However, especially in urgent cases and when detainees awaiting deportation are admitted at short notice, this requirement comes up against practical limits. This applies all the more given that interpreters for less common languages are generally not resident in Mühldorf am Inn, and that they would have to travel quite considerable distances, that is if they are actually available in the first place. The Joint Commission is aware that Mühldorf Prison’s location makes cooperation with interpreters difficult. However, access to interpreters is essential to facilitate communication with detainees awaiting deportation. That is why the Joint Commission would like to suggest that Mühldorf am Inn Prison’s locational disadvantage be taken into account when considering how custody pending deportation is to be organised in future in Bavaria. Response: In a second response the Ministry explained that discussions on how custody pending deportation is to be organised in Bavaria in the future have not yet been concluded. When the relevant decision is taken, Mühldorf am Inn Prison’s locational disadvantage when it comes to calling in interpreters at short notice will be taken into consideration as one of the aspects raised by the Joint Commission. Mühldorf Prison has one specially secured room. It has two CCTV cameras, which means the entire room, including the toilet, is visible from the outside. Providing persons deprived of their liberty with humane conditions of detention also requires that measures be taken to protect their private and intimate sphere. This also applies when they are placed in a specially secured room. Here, too, privacy must be guaranteed by means of the corresponding measures when detainees are going to the toilet, such as partial pixellation of the image. If need be, it may be conceiv- cf. National Agency, Annual Report 2013, p. 24 59