Correctional facility

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Outdoor facilities of the Bochum correctional facility
Red Ox prison in Halle
Trier correctional facility at night

In Germany, a prison authority is called a correctional facility ( JVA ) , the task of which is to carry out convictions for imprisonment or youth sentences. Trial detention , preventive detention , custodial sanctions or civil detention, such as administrative detention are also carried out in a correctional facility. The completion of the youth arrest , however, takes place in special youth detention centers . The term penal institution also refers to the entirety of the buildings at a location as such.

Similar institutions in Austria are called prisons , in Switzerland the prisons subordinate to the judiciary are called penal institutions .

Legal situation

Although the execution of sentences according to § 451 StPO is the responsibility of the public prosecutor , the execution of sentences is assigned to a separate area of ​​the administration of justice in all federal states . Regardless of the root of the name, the judicial administrations and their penal institutions, like the public prosecutor's office, are not part of the judiciary , but part of the executive branch .

Before 1970, different types of prison sentences existed in the Federal Republic of Germany, for which placement in institutions of the judicial administration was intended: penitentiary , prison , confinement , detention. There was also a measure of reform and securing the preventive detention and the workhouse . With the 1st Criminal Law Reform Act of June 25, 1969, this distinction was abolished on March 31, 1970. Especially in the legal language, prisons in Germany are now referred to as penal institutions . The execution of sentences is regulated in the Prison Act (StVollzG) of March 16, 1976, which has essentially been in force since January 1, 1977.

According to Sections 162 ff. StVollzG , a prison advisory board is to be set up at every penal institution , in which citizens perform voluntary advisory and control tasks.

As part of the federal-state balance, responsibility for the execution of sentences has been transferred to the states. Corresponding state laws are or are being drawn up. So true in Baden-Wuerttemberg , the new Since January 1, 2010 Penal Code (JVollzGB) of 10 November 2009. The main difference here is that now the pre-trial detention by law is regulated and no longer has to the Administrative Regulation ( remand Regulations -UVollzO ).

Prisons in Germany

External structure

The JVA are subordinate to the state ministries of justice.

Each JVA is assigned an advisory board which, as a representative of the public - overriding the prison management - performs supervisory and advisory tasks.

In several federal states, the prisons are also monitored by a prison officer. Volunteer citizens are involved in the social or cultural care of the prisoners; they are subject to internal prison procedures and instructions.

Internal structure

A prison is usually divided into the following departments and their areas:

  • Institution management with
    • Headquarters
    • Labor administration
    • Household Department
    • security and order
    • Enforcement office
    • Paying agent
    • Construction management
    • it
  • Specialist services department with
    • Psychological service
    • Educational service
    • Social service
    • Pastoral service
    • medical service
  • Social therapeutic department with
    • Psychological service
    • therapy
    • Diagnosis
    • Social service
    • Department service
  • General Enforcement Service Department with
    • Enforcement service manager
    • area manager
    • Duty planner
    • Headquarters
    • Nursing service
    • Department service
    • Factory inspection service
    • kitchen
    • Chamber administration
    • Leisure department
    • Driving service
    • Gate service
    • Training manager

Prisons for Elderly Offenders

Singen (Hohentwiel) in Baden-Württemberg has the only prison for older offenders in Germany with a capacity of 50 places. It is a branch of the Konstanz correctional facility . The prisoners are at least 63 years old and serve a term of more than 15 months.

In order to adequately take account of demographic change in the case of criminal offenders, prisons for older people are also being discussed in other federal states in Germany, for example for Dülmen in North Rhine-Westphalia . Individual countries already have their own departments for older offenders (for example Schwalmstadt correctional facility  - the Kornhaus or the senior citizens department of the Rheinbach prison , which opened in November 2015).

privatization

In 2005 the first German partially privatized prison was opened in Hünfeld ( Fulda district , Hesse ). The second partially privatized prison was built in Offenburg in Baden and opened in early 2009. Another public-private partnership process is being carried out in Saxony-Anhalt . In 2009, a correctional facility for 600 prisoners opened in Burg (near Magdeburg) .

Well-known former prisons

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: correctional facility  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : correctional facilities in Germany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prisons. Definition at the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia . Retrieved August 8, 2014 .
  2. ↑ About us. Example of the correctional officer in North Rhine-Westphalia ( Michael Walter , † 2014). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; accessed on August 8, 2014 . 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justizvollzugsbeauftragter.nrw.de
  3. ↑ with flyer Burg correctional facility