Guards are at the end

“Huge mess”: cry for help from prisons

Staff shortages and outdated structures leave many officers helpless. The mood is heading for rock bottom.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Reinhard Holl)

More than 60 prison guards have already been injured in attacks this year. While the number of inmates - especially foreign offenders - continues to rise, there is a blatant shortage of guards. The union has reached the end of its tether!

Nothing works anymore! The tense situation in the prison system has not really changed, despite repeated outcries from staff representatives. On the contrary, it is said that the high number of foreigners has made the situation worse. In some prisons, especially in the pre-trial detention area, up to 90 percent of suspects are said to be foreign nationals, a total of around 52 percent - and many of these are also from third countries, who cause various problems with their religious and cultural views.

Staff shortages and outdated structures leave many officers helpless. The mood is heading for a low point.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Reinhard Holl)

The willingness of this group of people to use violence against officers is also significantly high. This probably also explains the number of assaults. In the previous year, there were 158 attacks in which prison officers were ultimately injured. The number of unreported cases is naturally much higher. However, the situation did not improve between January and April 2024, when 64 cases were registered. Added to this are mentally unstable prisoners who have to be permanently monitored 24 hours a day in so-called video detention rooms.

Domestic prisons are suffering from the prisoners' violent excesses.

(Bild: Huber Patrick)

Criticism from officials usually falls on deaf ears
As there will be no improvement in the inmate population in the near future, some superiors in the responsible ministry have come up with nothing other than increasing the maximum inmate population, which is regulated by law for every prison, by 15 percent so that the statistics remain embellished.

For justice union leader Albin Simma, this is a more than fatal development: "The solution was to turn 100 percent into 115 percent. If it wasn't so dramatic, we would laugh about it." In addition to the still rampant staff shortage in the executive area, there is also the wave of retirements, which has apparently taken politicians by surprise, otherwise they would have reacted to it, according to the majority of guards.

The union has always called for a new building for such a large and outdated institution as the Vienna-Josefstadt prison, but either the costs are too high or other interests stand in the way.

Albin Simma, Vorsitzender der Justizwache-Gewerkschaft, lässt kein gutes Haar an den Entscheidungen im Ministerium.

Bild: GÖD

Added to this is the reconstruction of the largest remand prison in Austria, the notorious Vienna-Josefstadt prison, which is already underway.

Overcrowded prisons and danger on the streets
Now inmates have to be transferred, putting even more pressure on the already overstretched prisons in the other provinces. Especially in terms of officer safety. While the police forces deployed to deal with serious criminals naturally travel in armored vehicles, the prison guards often have to operate in old minibuses.

Old buses and aggressive occupants endanger the well-being of the guards. The ministry does too little, they say.

(Bild: Kerschbaummayr Werner)

The decision-makers in politics and authorities were apparently also completely surprised by the fact that a conversion would have an impact on service operations. They are only working with emergency solutions. Simma seems resigned at times: "Now the employees of Josefstadt have to put up with ten years of construction noise, dirt and emergency operations for the failures of the politicians, just because no one was able to plan ahead, which is actually a huge mess."

Meanwhile, the judiciary staff are eagerly awaiting the big bang.

Life sentence in Stein: "I would do it again in a heartbeat"
"I'm not going to prison with this degree" - Johann Hadrbolec heard this sentence for decades. The doctor of law has dedicated his entire professional life to the prison system. "I would do it again. This work takes you into all kinds of areas," he says. Dr. Hadrbolec was the head of a women's prison, then in the notorious Stein prison in Lower Austria, where there was even a revolt.

The reason: there were repeated announcements from politicians about easing prison conditions. For example, televisions, extended visiting rights etc. were promised, but nothing happened. "They overlooked the fact that prisoners don't put up with everything. I understood that. One day they knocked on the bars with metal, threw mattresses into the yard and set them on fire," recalls the former prison director. In the end, everything that is common practice today was approved by the ministry.

Dr. Johann Hadrbolec was the director of the notorious Stein prison (Lower Austria) for many years.

(Bild: Martina Münzer)

(Bild: P. Huber)

The lawyer sums up how important it was to keep the convicted men occupied in a meaningful way. "In my time, we trained in 25 different trades, from cook to locksmith," the former director continues. There was even a choir. He does not believe in the idea of abolishing prisons. Convicts should be brought to justice. He answers the question of whether there are actually more knife attacks today than 20 years ago with a yes.

One issue still concerns the lawyer today - why there is only one prison for women. His assumption: "The woman is programmed for endurance, the man for peak performance ..."