Garsten Prison

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Exterior view of Garsten Prison
Garsten Prison

The Garsten Prison is an Austrian penal institution in Garsten in Upper Austria . As a correctional facility, the prison is designed to accommodate offenders with sentences ranging from over 18 months to life . Most of the institution is located in the former buildings of Garsten Abbey , a former Benedictine monastery . It is one of the three prisons in Austria in which long sentences are carried out on male inmates (the other two are Graz-Karlau and Stein ).

Conception

The prison currently has a capacity of 360 prisoners. On August 30, 2007, there were 395 prisoners in these planned detention places, with the result that the institution achieved an occupancy rate of 109.72%. As of June 1, 2007, 141 of these prisoners (34.39% of the total population) did not have Austrian citizenship . On average, about 80% of inmates have regular work in one of 17 establishments within the prison or in external establishments.

Also prisoners of measures execution against sane, mentally abnormal offenders can in its own, designed for 42 detention places, measures section of the prison be accommodated. On January 1, 2010, 64 sane men with mentally abnormal lawbreakers were housed in the Garsten prison. In addition to the detention places in the measures department, these are also detained in other departments of the prison.

The prison is one of the safest in Austria. According to a report by the Federal Ministry of Justice , there was just one attempt to escape from the institution between 2000 and 2006. In 2005 the institution 84 surveillance cameras and about 60 decreed prison officers who are responsible for safety within the prison.

In 2005, among others, 40 offenders who were sentenced to life imprisonment and 100 prisoners with a term of between 10 and 20 years served their imprisonment in the Garsten prison. Around 20 people were classified as so dangerous that they were only allowed to move around the institution under guard. A specially secured department with double-barred cells was set up for these inmates.

In addition to the normal detention departments and the measures department, there is a special "drug-free zone" - officially called the "substance-free department" - in which particularly restrictive regulations apply to the handling of addictive substances. This zone, which is also structurally separated from the rest of the prison, contains 33 prison places. In addition, three beds are available in the closed ward of the Steyr hospital for prisoners from the Garsten prison.

Branch office Steyr

Since April 13, 2010 the formerly independent Steyr prison has been operated as a branch of Garsten. There, outdoor prisoners and inmates are accommodated in a relaxed prison .

history

The prison building is for the most part the complex of the former Garstener Stift. This was founded in 1082 by Ottokar I as a canon monastery and converted into a Benedictine monastery by his successor, Ottokar II . In 1787 the monastery was finally closed, the monastery church was converted into the parish church of Garsten and the inventory was sold. While some parts of the building complex were sold, others remained largely unused and fell into disrepair over time.

In 1850, the state acquired the building of the pen Garsten and established a year later, after the abolition of the provincial prison house Linz within the walls of the imperial  provincial prison house Garsten one. From 1856 onwards, the Sisters of Mercy were under the management of the penal house , but they were withdrawn again in 1866 and replaced by a state administration. Carl Santner was in charge of the prison from 1857 to 1866 , and he organized intensive musical activities in collaboration with prisoner Robert Führer .

In the 1930s, Ludwig Bernegger was in charge of the penal institution , Chief Police Officer of the Linz Police Department, who was murdered by the SS in 1938 immediately after the annexation of Austria. Between 1938 and 1945, opponents and victims of the Nazi regime were also imprisoned in Garsten. Among them were communists, priests, deserters, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses , homosexuals, social democrats and Christian Socialists. The prisoners were used as cheap slave labor for Steyr Daimler Puch , the air raid shelter and the power plant in Ternberg . Two memorial plaques in the Garsten prison have been commemorating these victims since 2018.

In August 1947 a prisoner who had escaped from Garsten murdered two gendarmes in Styria before he was arrested in Carinthia. In May 1995, the terrorist Tawfik Ben Ahmed Chaovali briefly escaped from the detention center.

In 2006, a major renovation of the visitor area was completed, while the other premises of the institution were and are continuously being renovated. With the completion of a new workshop and the renovation of existing parts of the building in the first quarter of 2008, the work opportunities within the institution were considerably improved and expanded.

One of the rare breakouts from the prison occurred on the night of June 28, 2019, when two inmates scratched a hole in their cell ceiling and were able to use it to get to freedom, first to an attic and then roped down the outer wall. More than two and a half months later, on September 18, 2019, the two inmates who had fled were arrested in Vienna. In response to the outbreak, a large-scale unannounced raid was carried out on September 11, during which 45 prohibited items were confiscated by the prison guard.

literature

  • Karl Ramsmaier: Garsten Prison 1938–1945. Mauthausen Committee Steyr, Steyr 2018.

Web links

Commons : Garsten Prison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Website of the Garsten Prison in the Justice Department.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF file; 21 kB) from the Federal Minister of Justice on the subject of current prisoner numbers .
  2. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF file; 21 kB) from the Federal Minister of Justice on the subject of the development of the floor covering in prisons .
  3. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF file; 119 kB) from Federal Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner on the subject of the situation of those detained under Section 21 (2) of the Criminal Code .
  4. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF file; 19 kB) from the Federal Minister of Justice on the subject of outbreaks from prisons .
  5. ^ Garsten: 500 cameras for 410 prisoners. (No longer available online.) In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten. December 2, 2005, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nachrichten.at  
  6. ↑ Treatment and aftercare facilities in the Austrian penal system ( memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), information from the Federal Ministry of Justice.
  7. ↑ Martin Dunst: Minister visits the prison - workforce fears closure . Article in the Upper Austrian News from November 13, 2009.
  8. ^ Mauthausen Komitee Steyr , accessed on August 11, 2018.
  9. ↑ Two escapes back in Garsten prison. In: DiePresse.com . September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Major raid in Garsten Prison: 45 prohibited items found. In: DiePresse.com . November 9, 2019, accessed September 19, 2019 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 1 ′ 18 ″  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 25 ″  E