JUVENILE PENAL INSTITUTIONS violent people who display serious behavioural problems and who very frequently have mental issues and great difficulty dealing with conflicts which arise during their time in detention without resorting to violence. Particular account needs to be taken of the fact that juvenile prisoners often come from social backgrounds in which they have often experienced a great deal of violence and most have been convicted for committing violent offences. The Joint Commission feels that the grounds which have been presented in regard to the ordering of special precautions are comprehensible. As already explained, special precautions appear to be ordered comparatively frequently, however; some juvenile penal institutions in other Länder do entirely without the use of physical restraints. The Joint Commission therefore recommended examining whether and by means of which measures the ordering of special precautions can be prevented beforehand or the number of such orders reduced. Hahnöfersand Prison has two cells in which physical restraints can be applied, both by means of a system of bandages and metal manacles and leg cuffs. Since metal cuffs represent a very high risk of injury, in particular to those who are very agitated, only the system of bandages developed specifically for that purpose should be used where physical restraint is required. Metal cuffs should no longer be kept in stock. Further, a provision applicable across Hamburg stipulates that persons being kept under physical restraint must fully undress and then be wrapped in cloth underpants provided for such situations. This procedure is degrading for the person concerned and is also very impractical for the member of staff applying it. Given that a Sitzwache is always ordered when physical restraints are applied, any potential suicidal acts using objects hidden in clothing can immediately be identified (in so far as a person subject to physical restraints is actually in a position to even carry them out). The Joint Commission recommends giving those concerned clothing which respects human dignity. The Joint Commission would also like to point out that in other Länder, for instance Saxony, physical restraints are no longer applied within the juvenile justice system. Response: All the prisons in Hamburg only use a system of belts as a means of physical restraint. In Hahnöfersand Prison, metal cuffs are only used in specific cases when prisoners are being transported within the prison up until they are placed in the specially secured room. However, this occurs only in rare exceptional cases where no other options for carrying out physical restraint are available. Taking account of all the facts, the cloth underpants used in Hamburg when a person is placed under physical re- straint appear to be a non-degrading solution which is appropriate to the circumstances. Physical restraints are used in extremely rare cases and only for a very short period (of a few hours). The specially secured rooms are equipped with a CCTV camera, as a result of which the entire room, including the toilet, is visible from outside. The provision of humane conditions of detention to people deprived of their liberty requires that measures be taken to protect their private and intimate sphere. Their genital area should be protected whenever prisoners are being monitored, for example by partially pixellating the camera image. If need be, it may be conceivable, in carefully considered, substantiated and documented individual cases, to permit unrestricted monitoring of a specially secured room where there is an acute danger of self-harm or suicide. This should be documented on the order for the special precautionary measure. The person concerned must at any rate be informed of the fact that optical surveillance is in 37 operation. Men are given paper underpants to wear when they are placed in the specially secured room, women are also given a paper shirt. As is the case when being subject to physical restraint, suitable clothing should also be handed out when someone is placed in the specially secured room. The Joint Commission recommends also giving men a paper shirt to wear when they are placed in the specially secured room. The specially secured rooms have safety flaws, for example windows which do not fit seamlessly into the wall. Whenever someone is placed in one of these rooms they are therefore always monitored by a member of staff, since the rooms are not suitable for longer term placement for that reason. The two rooms also have no ventilation system, which is all the more important since it is not possible to open the windows. The Joint Commission recommends remedying these defects. Response: The specially secured rooms in the Juvenile Institution currently have no CCTV cameras, though there are cameras in the Youth Detention Centre, which the Joint Commission also inspected. There are plans to equip the two specially secured rooms in the Juvenile Institution with surveillance cameras. The partial pixellation of the images, as recommended in the Joint Commission’s report, is being examined within this context. The monitoring is carried out by staff of the general prison service, depending on the individual case, and the order documented on the detention sheet. No definitive response can yet be given as regards the recommendation that men should also be issued with paper shirts when placed in the specially secured room. Discussions 37 39 see National Agency, Annual Report 2013, p. 27–28