Heidelberg (dpa/lsw) – Social Affairs Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) passionately asked the Heidelberg municipal council for the green light to use the “Fauler Pelz” ex-prison for the treatment of drug-addicted and psychiatric offenders. “The emergency does not stop at Heidelberg either,” he said on Thursday evening before the committee with a view to overcrowding in the psychiatric clinics. A third of these are overcrowded.
Lucha emphasized that the city councilors’ distrust of the penal system was unfounded. They do not believe in the interim solution announced by the ministry until the summer of 2025 and want to keep the building for the university. Lucha replied: “I give you my word of honor that this will not happen.” He is interested in an amicable solution and wants to soften the “cold shoulder” of the municipal council. He also has a public interest obligation.
In the evening, the municipal council was to vote on a proposal by Mayor Eckart Würzner (independent) to postpone the state’s building application for the conversion of the ex-prison for a year.
