The objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of persons deprived of their liberty by the police and in prisons, with a specific focus on persons held in preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung) and women, as well as security measures applied to detained persons. The visit was also an opportunity to review the progress made by the authorities in implementing the recommendations contained in the Committee’s previous visit reports on these topics.
In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with Stefanie Hubig, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, Georg Eisenreich, State Minister of Justice (Bavaria), Dirk Feuerberg, State Secretary for Justice (Berlin), Tanja Eichner, State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and the Rule of Law (Hesse), Daniela Brückner, State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Daniela Lesmeister, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior (North Rhine-Westphalia).
The delegation also met senior officials from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as from relevant Ministries of different Länder.
Exchanges were also held with representatives of the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture as the country’s National Preventive Mechanism, academics and members of civil society.
The delegation presented its preliminary observations to the German Federal and Länder authorities at the end of the visit in Berlin.
The visit was carried out by the following CPT members: Karin Rowhani-Wimmer (Head of delegation), Gergely Fliegauf, Nico Hirsch, Anna Jonsson Cornell, Judith Öhri and Hans Wolff. They were supported by Mahir Mushteidzada, Sebastian Rietz and Almut Schröder, Advisors from the CPT Secretariat, and assisted by Veronica Pimenoff, psychiatrist, former Head of Department at Helsinki University Psychiatric Hospital, Finland (expert).
The delegation visited the following places of deprivation of liberty:
Bavaria
- Munich (Stadelheim) Prison
- Munich Police Headquarters (Polizeipräsidium), Police Inspectorate ED 6
Berlin
- Berlin-Tegel Prison (unit for preventive detention)
- Berlin Police, Custody Unit 2, Tempelhof Detention Centre
- Berlin Police, Custody Unit 3, Central Detention Centre
- Berlin Police, Custody Unit 4, Friedrichshain Detention Centre
- Berlin Police, State Criminal Police Office
- Berlin Police, Directorate 3 (East), Crime Prevention Unit
- Federal Police Station, Berlin Central Railway Station
Brandeburg
- Potsdam Police Inspectorate
Hesse
- Schwalmstadt Prison (unit for preventive detention)
- Schwalm/Eder Police Directorate, Homberg/Efze
- Schwalmstadt Police Station
North Rhine-Westphalia
- Cologne Prison
- Werl Prison (including the unit for preventive detention)
- Cologne Police Inspectorate I (targeted visit)
- Cologne Police Headquarters
- Düsseldorf Police Headquarters
- Werl Police Station
