PRISONS Over the following weeks prison occupancy dropped further. In August 2013 there were 70 prisoners in the prison on average. There are plans to establish an additional wing with 16 cells. Further, there are plans to build a new prison in the region. The windows in all the cells in Konstanz Prison are fitted with opaque plexiglass. Although this glass lets in the light, it does not allow prisoners to see out through the window. In their meetings with the Joint Commission prisoners themselves described this as particularly stressful and they addressed the issue at the meeting of the prisoner council on 20 February 2012. Prisoners should have access to natural, unfiltered 49 light in their cell. Even if the situation in Konstanz Prison, given its location in the middle of a residential area, necessitates measures being taken to restrict contact with the outside world and people in neighbouring houses looking into the cells, attempts should nevertheless be made to enable prisoners to see out of their windows. Response: There is no denying that the opaque glass is very stressful for prisoners. Because the prison is situated in the middle of the city very close to the neighbouring public areas and adjacent premises, sight guards are nevertheless necessary to prevent neighbours suffering noise pollution, prisoners communicating with the outside world, which compromises the procedure, and in particular dangerous objects such as weapons and drugs being smuggled into the prison. However, these sight guards will not be necessary in the 16 new cells which are being created. The Joint Commission recommends examining how at least one shower per unit can be separated off in a manner so that prisoners’ genital area is obscured when they are showering. There do not appear to be any security reasons which speak against this, since this measure has already been implemented in other prisons. Response: Shower rooms are the most difficult rooms in which to prevent violence amongst prisoners. That is why it is not expedient to fix partitions which reduce visibility in the shower room. Those very few prisoners who feel a sense of shame when they have to shower in communal showers can reasonably be expected to wear swimming trunks. In particularly well-founded exceptional cases individual prisoners are allowed to shower on their own. The specially secured room has two doors which are each fitted with peepholes. The toilet in the detention room is in full view through the peephole in the door on the right-hand side. In order to ensure prisoners’ privacy, the Joint Commission recommends that the genital area should not be visible through the peephole. Response: The main purpose of the specially secured room is to prevent those prisoners who are at extreme risk of suicide from harming themselves. For that reason the toilet area must also be fully visible through the peephole. The house rules applicable to the various groups of prisoners are only available in German. They should be translated into those languages most commonly spoken by prisoners in order to ensure that the rules are understood as far as possible. This issue was also addressed by prisoners through the prisoner council. The list of institutions with whom prisoners may communicate without their correspondence being monitored (No. 6 of the house rules), should be written in line with section 17 (3) of the Penal Code Book II. Response: After establishing the five books of the BadenWürttemberg Penal Code with the relevant administrative provisions, the standardised information brochure for prisoners now needs to be incorporated. There are plans to have this translated into those languages spoken most commonly by prisoners in the course of that work. 49 50 3.3.3 – Further suggestions by the Joint Commission for improving the conditions of detention and response of the Ministry of Justice of Baden-Württemberg On the day of the visit, Konstanz Prison, which has a roll of 72, was holding 105 prisoners. This massive overcrowding leads to cramped conditions of detention, for example with cells being occupied by three or four people. Overcrowding can become a problem because common rooms, employment opportunities and staffing levels are also not designed to cope with the actual number of prisoners being 50 held. This structural overcrowding should therefore be remedied as soon as possible. Response: See response to the above recommendations. At the time of the Joint Commission’s visit there was no prisoner council in the facility, as the elections had been unsuccessful. The Joint Commission is aware of the difficulties in electing a prisoner council in a prison enforcing short prison sentences with a high throughput of prisoners. It therefore welcomes the fact that the head of the institution has informed the Joint Commission that new elections are currently being organised and it encourages the prison to continue regularly promoting the formation of this body. Response: It is often not possible to establish a prisoner council. This is due exclusively to the lack of interest on the part of prisoners serving short sentences, who are generally not prepared to stand for election. Cf. CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2010, p. 26 et seq. 82 Cf. also CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 - Rev. 2010, p. 17, 22, 25