Police detention centres 2.6.4 Further aspects of detention enforcement in police detention centres As presented in the NPM Report 2019 (p. 158), the Federal Ministry of the Interior rejected implementing the opportunity for detainees to use video telephony (via Skype) with reference to the high yearly software licence fees and the one-off cost for the hardware. In further discussions, the Ministry voiced understandable security concerns in connection with the use of the internet for video telephony, which the NPM acknowledged. Video telephony On monitoring visits to Wels and Salzburg police detention centres, the commission observed that the detainees were not able to receive visits or only received “glass visits”. Furthermore, the voice quality in the visiting rooms of Salzburg police detention centre was severely limited due to the plexiglass shield and the spatial conditions. In Klagenfurt correctional institution, detainees have had the opportunity to communicate with the outside via an application for video conferences since spring 2020. This video telephony served as a substitute for the personal visits that had to be stopped during the pandemic. It was noticeable in this case that use of the application was free of charge if the video conference or video call did not last longer than 40 minutes. Free video telephony Since the Federal Ministry of Justice communicated that it had already commissioned the installation of telephony in all correctional institutions, the NPM recommended the Federal Ministry of the Interior to establish a similar opportunity in police detention. Furthermore, the NPM recommended that the Federal Ministry of the Interior obtain information on the organisation of video telephone calls in correctional institutions from the Federal Ministry of Justice. The Federal Ministry of the Interior stated that it did not plan to implement video telephony as another form of communication for detainees (in addition to telephone calls, letters and visits). As justification, the Federal Ministry of the Interior referred to the fact that the Federal Ministry of Justice defined video telephony as a variable form of telecommunications for detainees in prisons pursuant to Section 86 of the Penitentiary System Act (Strafvollzugsgesetz) and not as a visit pursuant to Section 93 of the same act. Furthermore, the conditions stipulated in the Penitentiary System Act for approving telephone calls, the content of which is the same as those in Sections 19 and 21 of the Detention Regulation (Anhalteordnung), deviate from those for granting visits. The Federal Ministry of the Interior emphasised that telephone calls in justified cases might be a subjective right of the detainees; however, they would have to state and verify the reasons for the same. That is why a general approval of telephone calls is neither conformant with the law nor planned by the Federal Ministry of Justice as part of the implementation of video telephony in the Legal reservations of the Ministry of the Interior 142