Stein Prison

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Northwest view of Stein Prison

The Stein Prison is the second largest prison in Austria and at the same time the largest prison facility of the Austrian judiciary operated as a penal institution - i.e. as a prison not attached to a regional court for the execution of longer sentences. It is located in Stein , a district of Krems in the federal state of Lower Austria .

Conception and organization

Only male prisoners with a term of more than 18 months to life are housed in Stein . Together with the three outposts in Mautern, Oberfucha, the “Relaxed Prison Krems an der Donau” department and the closed department of the Krems Hospital, the Stein Prison can accept 805 prisoners. On August 30, 2007, there were 807 prisoners in these planned detention places, with the result that the institution achieved an occupancy rate of 100.25%. Of these, as of June 1, 2007, 326 prisoners (41.32% of the total population) did not have Austrian citizenship .

In 1999, a substitution department with 43 beds was set up - with 56 inmates receiving substitution drugs in 2000 and 108 in 2006, so that they had to be housed in other areas of the prison.

Since March 27, 2007 there has also been a long-term visitor room in the Stein prison, popularly known as the “cuddle cell” . The high-security wing, for which the prison is known, is located on the ground floor of the west wing, on "West E". The specially secured cells on West E are a little below street level and accommodate some of Austria's most dangerous prisoners.

Implementation in stone

In addition to the execution of custodial sentences, prisoners of the execution of measures , namely sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers (Section 21 (2 ) StGB ) can also be accommodated in the Stein Prison . These are mostly people who cannot be imprisoned in the measures departments of other prisons because of their length of sentence or because of their problematic personalities. The suspension of measures in the Stein Prison is therefore primarily designed to detain inmates classified as particularly dangerous and who appear to be less motivated for social therapeutic treatment. Lately, however, this concept is no longer relevant because of the increasing number of admissions, partly because of minor offenses. This classification is usually carried out by the assessment body for the implementation of measures at the Vienna Mittersteig prison .

The institution's own social therapeutic measures department can be occupied by a maximum of 44 people, due to massive overcrowding and the resulting inadequate care structures, which also lead to stopping times in the JA Stein that are well above the Austrian average, the measures accommodated are usually also in others Departments (as of July 11, 2009, there were 101 people in the execution of measures in Stein), but this is legally problematic and is currently being evaluated by an expert commission set up by the Minister of Justice, along with many other irregularities in this form of execution, as part of an announced criminal law reform becomes.

In 2014 there were several incidents in the prison prison in Stein, which made headlines for a long time in the Austrian press and led to the suspension of some officials. For example, a man was left in his cell without care and without any care until his legs began to rot. Having been informed of this, Justice Minister Brandstetter ordered a detailed review of the implementation of the measures.

Branch offices

Former Meidling branch
Detailed view of the building of the Stein prison

The prison has three branch offices for the implementation of relaxed penal systems. In the Oberfucha branch, which is located in the market town of Furth near Göttweig , prisoners who had to serve a long sentence are prepared for their conditional release through special training. Another branch with an outdoor house is located in the city of Mautern an der Donau . In addition, there is the “Relaxed Execution Krems an der Donau” department.
The former branch in Meidling in the market town of Paudorf was located in the former Meidling Castle . It was operated as an economic enterprise for pig breeding and fattening, as well as as a nursery since 1968 and closed in 2011.

Department system

In addition to the three outposts of the prison, each of which is organizationally independent, there is also an organizational subdivision within the prison. Depending on the type of detention and particular abnormalities of the inmates, they are accommodated in one of ten so-called departments, each under the direction of a department head. This shows the advantage of the department system in that prisoners with similar conditions are accommodated together and are kept as far as possible away from the other inmates in the regular prison system. The following departments currently exist:

  • First prison ward: People who are starting a prison sentence for the first time are accommodated separately from the other prisoners in the first prison ward.
  • Release Department : Prisoners who are about to be released are prepared in this department for release from prison.
  • Department for mental health problems : The department for mental health problems is set up for inmates with psychological problems and their treatment.
  • Special hospital: Until August 2016, the Stein prison had a special hospital that accepted prisoners from all over Germany who needed clinical treatment and could not be transferred to a regular hospital for this purpose (especially for security reasons). The special hospital was replaced by a sick department without a doctor on night duty.
  • Substitution department: In the substitution department set up especially in 1999, drug-addicted inmates are treated with drug substitutes.
  • Measures Department (for sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers): The measures department for sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers takes them in and keeps them under psychiatric treatment until they are released from prison.
  • Security department: In addition to the high security wing "West E", the security department of the Stein prison also includes the segregated cells. These are specially secured cells from which all objects with which the prisoners could injure themselves or someone else have been removed.
  • Normal prison department: In the normal prison department are all those inmates who could not be assigned to any other department and who are employed within the institution.
  • Measures department (for lawbreakers who need to wean): The measures department for lawbreakers who need to wean primarily houses prisoners sentenced under Section 22 of the Criminal Code and is therefore set up as a drug-free zone.
  • Outposts in Oberfucha and Mautern: In the outposts of the prison, the prisoners are mainly accommodated in relaxed detention, in the release detention facility and (in the outpost in Mautern) as prisoners.

history

The KK Austrian cell prison in 1875
Prison with a former Redemptorist convent on Steiner Landstrasse.

The approximately 58,000 m² complex of today's prison was bought by the state in 1850 as a former Redemptorist convent and converted into a prison known as the KK Austrian cell prison in Stein an der Donau . For this purpose an extension had to be carried out. This was originally planned for 800 prisoners, but was soon reduced to 350. During the Second World War the institution maintained a labor camp in Theimwald .

Stone massacre

In April 1945, when the invasion of the Red Army was imminent, the director of the facility, Franz Kodré , obtained permission to release at least those prisoners classified as less heavily burdened. After he interpreted this permit particularly generously and on April 7th began to release all prisoners, some of the prison guards reported his actions to the Krems NSDAP leadership. The latter then brutally stopped the release by having all remaining inmates, the prison director and some of his employees shot on the spot. But the prisoners who had already been released were also hunted down and murdered on the same or the following day. The number of victims, which could not be precisely determined, is given as 229 killed prisoners in Stein and 61 in Hadersdorf; the total is also given as 386. The documentary Kremser Hasenjagd deals with this end- stage crime .

Special events

On Thursday, November 4th, 1971, one of the most spectacular prison breakouts in Austrian judicial history occurred in the Stein prison. The three offenders Alfred Nejedly, Walter Schubirsch and Adolf Schandl overpowered two security officers with self-made knives and stole their service weapons. They then took an examining magistrate, a secretary and the Krems police chief hostage and demanded money and safe conduct. After Justice Minister Christian Broda had authorized the prison management to open the prison gates, a spectacular escape began. The perpetrators took hostages several times over the next two days and used several escape vehicles while constantly negotiating with the Vienna police. Finally they managed to outrun the police, whereby Schandl jumped out of the car and fled on alone, while Schubirsch and Nejedly released the hostages and holed up with three new hostages in an acquaintance's apartment. On Saturday, the police surrounded the building and started negotiations. From previous conversations with the hostages, the police concluded that the escapes were hiding. In the late afternoon, Nejedly finally gave up, while Schubirsch stayed in the apartment with the two firearms and announced that he would only surrender to the Chief of Police. It was only when the police chief Josef Holaubek appeared to say “ I am, the President! “And spoke to the perpetrator, he gave up. Adolf Schandl could not be arrested until two weeks later.

In July 2001 there were five deaths in connection with the prohibited use of belted beds and an overheated cell , allegedly also called a sauna cell . The mentally ill prisoner Ernst Karl was strapped to a belt bed for one night without observation. There he died of an intestinal obstruction. The then responsible Minister of Justice Dieter Böhmdorfer had forbidden all those involved by internal decree to speak about the incident. Both the use of belted beds and the individual detention of mentally ill inmates are prohibited by law.

According to official information , the 37-year-old Nigerian Edwin Ndupu died in August 2004 of a fat embolism following self-inflicted injuries through no fault of his own. According to the justice guard, he had previously raged and threatened other inmates with a cutlery knife , after which he had to be reassured. Since the inmate was HIV positive and officials had come into contact with his blood, they received compensation of 2,000 euros each. The circumstances surrounding the death of the inmate have raised doubts about the credibility of the official report. The media and politicians alike do not rule out the possibility of tear gas being used in closed rooms. A clarification of the facts by an objective external investigation commission was refused. In October 2004, a demonstration because of the prisoner who died in August was prohibited by the city council of Krems an der Donau . Despite the ban, there was a peaceful rally .

On November 16, 2007, a mentally abnormal lawbreaker convicted of attempted murder managed to escape. The man had stolen a rope from a storage room, got onto a canopy, climbed the ten-meter-high outer wall and rappeled down from there. Since a prison guard observed the escape and immediately triggered the alarm, the escaped man could be arrested again after around 25 minutes.

Trivia

  • The old monastery church of the Stein prison is used for events and is partly open to the public in this context.
  • Former prisoner Erich Rebitzer was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. He spent 17 years in prison until Gustaf Adolf Neumann, after years of efforts, finally obtained his release in 1966.
  • In the film, fear of Gerald Kargl from 1983, the main character is equal released from prison at the beginning of the film. The figure is loosely based on Werner Kniesek , who was also imprisoned in the institution and tried to break out there that same year, but it failed.
  • Colloquially and especially in inmate jargon, the prison is often called "Felsen" or dialectically "Fösn".

Web links

Commons : Stein Prison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF; 22 kB) from Federal Minister Dr. Maria Berger on the topic of current prisoner numbers .
  2. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF; 21 kB) from Federal Minister Dr. Maria Berger on the subject of the development of the floor covering in prisons .
  3. ↑ Review of the BMJ's management of the Stein prison (PDF; 627 kB) by the Austrian Court of Auditors from May to June 2006.
  4. ↑ a b Manfred Seeh: The "lifelong" von Stein ( Memento from July 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) . Article from July 11, 2009 on diepresse.com.
  5. ↑ Inquiry response (PDF; 40 kB) from Federal Minister Dr. Claudia Bandion-Ortner on the subject of accommodating sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers (Section 21 (2) StGB) .
  6. ↑ Michael Möseneder: Scandal in stone: three officials suspended . Article on derStandard.at from May 21, 2014.
  7. ^ Prison Stein: Responsibility (homepage of the Federal Ministry of Justice).
  8. ↑ heute.at: This is where murderers and robbers start a new life on October 17, 2017 (accessed on November 28, 2017).
  9. ↑ Gerald Wolf: Everyday Life in the Stein Prison - Life in a Total Institution (PDF; 2.9 MB) . Diploma thesis at the University of Vienna, 2010. p. 39, graphic 6
  10. ↑ Stein prison loses hospital. Österreichischer Rundfunk, August 9, 2016, accessed on November 13, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Materials of the DOEW ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to the stone massacre  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / doewweb01.doew.at
  12. ^ Virtual memorial to the so-called Hadersdorf massacre on April 7, 1945.
  13. ↑ The Kremser Hasenjagd orf.at; The Kremser Hasenjagd kremser-hasenjagd.at, accessed on April 7, 2011
  14. ↑ Florian Klenk : Quiet forever ( Memento from June 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Article in the weekly newspaper Falter on July 7, 2004.
  15. ↑ Die Presse: Stein: Escape from prison ended after 25 minutes . Article from November 16, 2007 on diepresse.com.
  16. ↑ Der SPIEGEL reported… hunters of false judgment . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1966, pp. 198 ( online ).
  17. ↑ Florian Klenk: Hard as stone. In: Falter . June 17, 2014, accessed July 9, 2020 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 24 ′ 21 ″  N , 15 ° 35 ′ 14 ″  E