Council of Europe: "Worrying": Lousy sentence for psychiatric care in prisons

The number of psychiatrists in German prisons is "clearly insufficient".

Council of Europe: "Worrying": Lousy sentence for psychiatric care in prisons

The number of psychiatrists in German prisons is "clearly insufficient". This is the conclusion reached by the competent committee of the Council of Europe. The long solitary confinement is also criticized. The police also have cause for criticism.

The Council of Europe has criticized the lack of psychiatric care in some German prisons. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the Council of Europe (CPT) also expressed concern in a report about the sometimes long solitary confinement of detainees.

In the two prisons visited, Bayreuth and Gelsenkirchen, the psychiatric care was "worrying," according to the report. The number of psychiatrists there is "clearly insufficient". The prisons also have "great difficulties in transferring prisoners with acute psychological problems to an appropriate therapeutic environment".

The CPT also criticized the fact that in Celle and Lübeck prisons, inmates in solitary confinement usually spent around 22 hours in their cells without contact with other people and that they were only allowed extremely limited contact with other people.

The CPT also counted the fixation of people in police custody in Brandenburg, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia as one of the criticized conditions. The committee recommended the abolition of this measure in police facilities across Germany.

The CPT also expressed "serious concern" that in Germany it was still possible to question young people without legal counsel or a person of trust. The CPT demanded that their presence must be mandatory. According to the report, individual cases of excessive violence, verbal abuse and threats of violence were reported to the CPT in relation to the treatment of inmates by the police. Allegations of intentional physical abuse were not reported to the inspectors.

In the prisons visited, violence by employees or among prisoners is not a major problem, the material conditions are "very good" and the range of activities makes a "positive impression". Committee members examined a total of 18 correctional facilities, police stations and forensic psychiatric clinics in 2020.