VISITS BY THE JOINT COMMISSION Shower times in the transport unit are Mondays to Fridays from 8.30 am to 10.30 am on the ground floor and 9.30 am to 10.30 am on the first floor. Showers are not available on Saturdays and Sundays. Prisoners who are being transported to another facility the next morning are not, unfortunately, able to shower because they generally leave the prison between 7 am and 8 am. Early morning departures also require a considerable amount of organisational effort (waking prisoners, cell handover, searching prisoners before they leave etc.). Irrespective of whether they can take a shower or not, prisoners who only spend one night in Nuremberg Prison can also wash themselves in their detention cells, as all the cells have a washbasin and detainees are given toiletries and fresh towels. Response: The prison’s special duty of care towards prisoners mandatorily requires that it provide the best possible protection against violent or sexually motivated attacks amongst prisoners. In order to protect prisoners against such attacks by fellow prisoners, it is at the very least necessary to be able to carry out spot checks of the shower rooms. Effective and discreet checks of communal shower rooms by staff presuppose that they can easily get an overview of the rooms. Installing partition walls would mean that it would then be hard to carry out the required spot checks in a manner which encroaches on prisoners’ privacy as little as possible whilst they are showering. By contrast, the open layout of the showers means that staff can quickly get an overview of the room and prevent or immediately put a stop to attacks amongst prisoners. It is particularly in the interest of protecting prisoners that partition walls have not yet been installed in the communal showers. Nevertheless, Nuremberg Prison will take up the suggestion and successively install partition walls in at least one shower in the prison shower rooms which at least cover the genital area. It remains to be seen what experience the prison gains in this regard. 3.2.3 – Custody pending deportation: Recommendations and response On the day before the Joint Commission’s visit the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice announced that as from 25 November 2013 Mühldorf am Inn Prison would become the central facility responsible for enforcing custody pending deportation for Bavaria. The Joint Commission welcomes this development, since when detainees awaiting deportation are placed together with sentenced prisoners and remand prisoners, even if the principle of the separation of these two groups is observed, detainees have to put up with stricter restrictions than would be the case in a separate facility enforcing custody pending deportation. Even though Nuremberg Prison will in future only be responsible for enforcing custody pending deportation when Mühldorf am Inn Prison is overcrowded, the Joint Commission feels it must still make those recommendations regarding the accommodation of detainees awaiting deportation which are based on its visit to Nuremberg Prison. These recommendations can then be taken into account when organising custody pending deportation at Mühldorf am Inn Prison. Response: Given recent court decisions, Mühldorf am Inn Prison has had to be converted, at extremely short notice, into a temporary pre-deportation detention facility. That is why it was only possible to successively establish the relevant conditions of detention, which must differ significantly from those of sentenced prisoners. The recruitment procedure for the around 30 additional members of prison staff and the specialist services who are to support existing staff was immediately launched. In addition, some EUR 1.6m was invested in structural measures and in furnishings and fittings in order to create the necessary conditions in the rooms as well. According to the current state of planning, it is anticipated that both the required staff and rooms will be available around the middle of this year so that the following projects, which are currently at the planning stage, can then be implemented. 3.2.2 – Further suggestions for improving the conditions of detention Prisoners placed in the transport unit generally arrive there by bus at around 6 pm. They are given an evening meal and are then locked in. Only those prisoners who are not moved on straight away the next day are able to take a shower. According to members of staff, prisoners are unable to shower when they arrive in the evening because it is too time-consuming and requires too much manpower. That is why prisoners may end up not being able to shower for four to five consecutive days. The Joint Commission recommends giving those arriving in the transport unit the opportunity to shower. Response: The transport unit in Nuremberg Prison has a capacity of 65 and is part of a total of six prisoner transport circuits. Each year more than 4,000 prisoners (2013: 4,418) from across Germany spend at least one night in this unit. The majority of transported prisoners generally arrive in the prison between 5 pm and 7 pm. Admission of the on average 20 prisoners who arrive during this period requires a not inconsiderable amount of organisational effort (proper accommodation, possibly being taken to see the doctor, removal of valuables and belongings, handing out food etc.). Given the very diverse tasks which need to be carried out, it is not possible to enable those arriving in the evening to take a shower without neglecting other, more urgent tasks. New arrivals are, in addition, entirely unknown to officers, as a result of which a risk assessment cannot be carried out until the transport documents have been studied. Given this situation it is therefore not possible for new arrivals to shower until the next day. 44