The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture speaks of a “humiliating situation” and “inhumane accommodation” – but the Bavarian Ministry of Justice has defended the prison conditions in specially secured rooms in a prison on Lake Chiemsee against criticism. The rooms with glass walls compared to a “glass cage” in the Bernau am Chiemsee correctional facility (JVA) protected the employees from attacks by the prisoners, said a ministry spokesman for the German Press Agency. It is about “the physical integrity and dignity of the employees”.
The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture had criticized the rooms, among other things, that prisoners could only communicate there via a flap attached at floor level. “These conditions lead to a humiliating situation for the prisoners concerned and to inhumane accommodation,” says the report. In order to be able to communicate, the prisoners had to “lie or kneel on the floor”. The ministry disagreed. The acoustic exchange is guaranteed without difficulty at room volume – regardless of whether the flap is open at floor level or not. “The statements by the national agency are not understandable in this respect,” said the ministry spokesman.
Until 2013, bars would have separated prisoners from prison staff. However, these could not have protected the employees from spitting attacks and throwing feces. In addition, the prisoners could have held the servants. Prisoners whose behavior is unpredictable are also kept in the specially secured rooms. Therefore, the bar gratings were replaced by glass walls.
Moving prisoners to these rooms is a last resort, the ministry spokesman said. They would be relocated to other rooms as soon as possible. Longer stays in the rooms would have to be reported to the ministry. At the beginning of the week, two prisoners were housed in the four specially secured rooms in Bernau.
According to its own statements, the Ministry of Justice does not plan to change anything about the conditions in the specially secured rooms. “The specially secured cells, which are separated from the anteroom by a glass wall, have proven their worth in practice,” said a ministry spokesman. He also criticized the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture: The agency had not given the ministry an opportunity to comment before publishing its annual report.
The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture is an independent institution for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in Germany. It goes back to a United Nations convention that obliges member states to set up an agency that can visit all facilities where people are held in custody.
It is not the first time that JVA Bernau has made the headlines. In two violent crimes within two years, one prisoner died in the prison. After the first death in 2019, the security precautions were tightened according to the ministry. The yards where the first crime happened were monitored by video. However, the two cases “cannot be attributed to the special features of Bernau Prison,” it said. Rather, “individual circumstances of the prisoners concerned were the cause”.