Juvenile Prison Act

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Young inmate (1995)

The juvenile prison laws of the federal states have been the legal basis for the implementation of juvenile prisoners since 2008, in some cases as early as 2007 .

history

As in the case of the adult penal system, for a long time it was considered unnecessary to regulate the youth penal system in more detail. In the Juvenile Court Act (JGG), the tasks of juvenile punishment were defined before January 1, 2008 (Section 91 JGG old version) and juvenile punishment was provided for in separate juvenile detention centers (Section 92 JGG old version). Further legal regulations resulted from Sections 114, 115 JGG, Sections 43 - 52, Sections 94 - 101, Sections 176, 178 StVollzG as well as Section 23 (1) sentence 2 EGGVG and supplementary administrative regulations.

At the latest since the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 14, 1972 on the unconstitutionality of a penal system that is not regulated by law and the creation of a penal penal law for adults, a discussion about the need for a youth penal penal law began. A juvenile prison commission met under the chairmanship of Alexander Böhm and produced a draft, which, however, despite several attempts by the Federal Ministry of Justice, never became law.

On May 31, 2006, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on this matter. The Federal Constitutional Court made it clear that this is also an unconstitutional situation and demanded that the legislature create a legal basis by the end of 2007. At the same time, the court made a number of substantive requirements that must be taken into account in the legislation.

Effects of the federalism reform

As a result of the federalism reform, each individual federal state has legislative sovereignty for juvenile prison systems (as well as for adult prison systems and the implementation of pre- trial detention ). There are three models: the law on the execution of juveniles in prison (e.g. Baden-Württemberg), the law on the execution of prison sentences with a section on the execution of juveniles (e.g. Bavaria, Hamburg) and finally the law on prison with sections on the execution of young people and on remand (e.g. Lower Saxony). A working group of nine federal states has produced a joint draft model for a pure youth penal law. But even these federal states will not adopt all the provisions of the draft model unchanged. On March 30, 2007, Bremen was the first federal state in this group to pass a youth penal law. The drafts or laws passed in the various countries contain country-specific features. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, juvenile punishment in free forms has been added as a third form of execution alongside open and closed execution, and aftercare for young people released from prison is particularly emphasized.

A group of experts and specialist organizations under the leadership of the German Association for Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Court Assistance (DVJJ) published a catalog of “Minimum Standards for Juvenile Prisons” in February 2007, which they believe should serve as a benchmark for legislation. None of the laws that have come into force meet the minimum standards mentioned in all points.

Individual state enforcement laws

Bavaria, Hamburg and Lower Saxony

Bavaria and Lower Saxony have integrated their juvenile prison laws into adult prison laws, which is criticized by most experts as improper. Bavaria and Hamburg have also declared the protection of the general public to be the primary goal of juvenile detention, the education for a "righteous life in social responsibility" (§ 121 BayStVollzG) or the "education mandate" (§ 2 Paragraph 2 Sentence 2 HmbStVollzG) are subordinated.

Group of 9

A group of new federal states jointly worked out a draft model, on the basis of which (with minor deviations) state laws were passed in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia all entered into force on January 1, 2008. The enforcement here should "equally" serve the goal of enabling prisoners to lead a socially responsible life without criminal offenses in the future and the task of protecting the general public from further criminal offenses.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the youth penal law introduced in 2008 was abolished five years later and merged with the adult penal law into a state law enforcement act of May 8, 2013.

Hesse

In Hesse, the "educational goal" is a life without criminal offenses, but "at the same time" the protection of the general public from further criminal offenses is sought. A special quality feature is the mandatory individual accommodation in residential groups of a maximum of eight participants. Contrary to the wishes of science, the closed execution was set as the rule execution. In order to achieve the established quality standards, large sums of money in the Hessian household are also to be released for juvenile prisoners.

North Rhine-Westphalia

As the only state law, the JStVollzG of North Rhine-Westphalia clearly adheres in its § 2 to the priority given by the Prison Act to the aim of rehabilitation over the protection of the general public (which is only to be guaranteed secondarily in the design of the execution).

literature

  • Florian Ruhs: The juvenile prison system in Germany and its conformity with international and European guidelines, recommendations and international law , in: StudZR 1/2011, pp. 85-100.
  • Christian Sussner: Juvenile prison system and legislation. The judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court in the context of current developments and its legislative implementation , Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4349-2 .
  • Philipp Walkenhorst: Jugendstrafvollzug , in: APuZ 7/2010, pp. 22–28.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 91 JGG in the version valid before January 1, 2008 buzer.de
  2. ↑ § 92 JGG in the version valid before January 1, 2008 buzer.de
  3. ↑ cf. Uniform federal administrative regulations for juvenile prisoners (VVJug) Website of the Brandenburg State Law, accessed on March 13, 2019
  4. ↑ BVerfG, decision of March 14, 1972, Az. 2 BvR 41/71, BVerfGE 33, 1 - prisoners.
  5. ↑ cf. Günter Tondorf: Sample draft for a youth penal law of the federal states, version November 2006
  6. ↑ BVerfG, judgment of May 31, 2006, Az. 2 BvR 1673/04, 2 BvR 2402/04, full text .