Details
Legal instruments & key provisions
Legal instrument | Key provision |
---|---|
Federal Prison Act (Strafvollzugsgesetz) | Cells should be designed in a manner meeting their purpose. No legal standards exist on toilets and sanitary facilities. |
Federal State Level Acts | Each federal state has its own rules regarding e.g., surveillance, sanitary products. |
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS
Year | Recommendation | Report |
---|---|---|
2016 | The NPM recommends that video surveillance of toilet facilities – except in the case of so-called “especially secured detention rooms” (besonders gesicherter Hafträume) – should use privacy-respecting technologies, such as “pixilation” of video images. | Report details |
2017 | The NPM reports violations of these standards in its recently published annual report 2017: Prison cells in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg lacked fully separated toilets although multiple persons were accommodated. The Agency claims that Section 8 II of Book I of the Baden-Württemberg Prison Code violates constitutional law as it provides for the accommodation of multiple persons in such cells if these persons agree in a written form. The Agency argues that human dignity is not disposable. 'https://www.nationale-stelle.de/fileadmin/dateiablage/Dokumente/Berichte/Jahresberichte/ JAHRESBERICHT_2017_Nationale_Stelle.pdf | Report details |
2022 | At eleven [of 17] of the prisons visited, 24-hour CCTV monitoring in the specially secured cells included the toilet area, all of which was visible on the monitoring screen. […] Both the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Justice and the Bavarian Ministry of Justice firmly rejected the pixelation recommendation on the grounds of safety. However, as in previous years, in 2022 the National Agency observed a number of CCTV systems that allowed pixelation of an individual’s genital area whilst ensuring that their upper body was visible when they were sitting on the toilet.135 In some cases, there is even a statutory requirement for such an approach. According to information from the facilities in question, any safety or security concerns had not proved to be justified. | Report details |