The lack of space in the therapy facilities for addicted offenders has unwelcome consequences for the general public. Time and again, convicts leave prison before serving their sentence. The Minister of Social Affairs is under pressure.
Stuttgart/Heidelberg (dpa/lsw) – Because there are no places in rehabilitation centers, offenders in Baden-Württemberg keep walking free. Their number remains at a high level. According to the Ministry of Justice, this year 33 convicted criminals who were actually supposed to be in the so-called correctional facility were released because they had to wait too long. In the previous year, 35 offenders could not be allocated a place in a therapy facility in good time.
“The hut is on fire,” said the deputy head of the FDP in the state parliament, Jochen Haussmann, the German Press Agency. Among those released were men who had been convicted of dangerous bodily harm. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, perpetrators of serious violent crimes are not released early. “The development does not exactly increase people’s sense of security,” said Haussmann.
According to its own statements, the department of Social Affairs Minister Manne Lucha is doing everything possible to increase capacities. “Of course, the current plans aim to eliminate the current bottlenecks,” said a spokesman for the Green politician.
With the completion of a clinic in Schwäbisch Hall by the end of 2024 or early 2025, so many therapy places should be available again in the long term that there will no longer be releases due to a lack of space.
The SPD parliamentary group also takes Lucha to court: “If convicts simply walk away because there are no appropriate places in Baden-Württemberg, that is a blow to the rule of law, which the Minister of Social Affairs is watching idly,” said the prison expert SPD, Jonas Weber. The ministry has turned a blind eye to this problem for years.
In September 2022, around 1,400 people were in forensic institutions – a third more than in 2017. There are many reasons for the tense situation in Baden-Württemberg. The seven psychiatric centers where the therapies take place are full to the brim. In addition to the densification in the existing facilities, which leads to aggression among the patients, new buildings and extensions are planned, but they will not provide a breath of fresh air in the short term. New buildings at the Calw and Wiesloch locations will not create around 100 new therapy places until the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. 100 places are to be created in Schwäbisch Hall. This closed the gaps, the ministry said.
But until these projects are completed, Lucha still needs an interim solution, which he believes he has found by converting the Heidelberg ex-prison “Fauler Pelz”. But this plan is met with fierce resistance in the city, with Mayor Eckart Würzner (independent) at the helm, in the municipal council and at the university, which wants to use the complex itself. The city is also taking legal action against plans for the state-owned property in several lawsuits.
According to the FDP politician Haussmann, Lucha alone is to blame for the misery. “He failed to involve the city and find a compromise.” Actually, the minister should have reacted earlier to the development. He dismissed the FDP’s proposal to arrange admission in other federal states without space problems. Despite the muddled situation, both opposition politicians see no other way for Lucha than to approach the city again, because there is no alternative to the “lazy fur” in Heidelberg.
Above all, the vague legal requirements of Section 64 of the Criminal Code for accommodation in forensic institutions and their generous interpretation by the courts have led to the overcrowding of the facilities. In a draft law by the Federal Ministry of Justice, which was welcomed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the opposition, the rules are to be tightened.
In 2019, criminals had to be released in the southwest for the first time due to a lack of space. A year later, six people were able to leave the prison because the so-called organizational detention lasted too long – “organizational detention” is the length of time between the verdict and transfer to the correctional facility; It is constitutional if the transfer from the detention center to the correctional facility is organized immediately after the verdict. Otherwise, the courts will order their release.
At the end of September this year, the Ministry of Social Affairs reported 74 people in organizational detention in connection with Article 64 – most with waiting periods of more than three months. 154 other offenders were waiting for a therapy place due to other legal bases.
