Cold Showers and Dinner at 1:30 PM: Issues in Vienna's Juvenile Detention
For this report, interviews were conducted with around 40 inmates. The juvenile prisoners also reported excessive interventions and insults by prison guards not specifically trained for juvenile detention, a lack of employment and leisure opportunities, and long lock-up times.
KIJA: "Structural Problems" in JA Münnichplatz
Since January 2025, juvenile inmates from the JA Josefstadt have been continuously transferred to the new youth prison at Münnichplatz in Simmering, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year. However, the JA Münnichplatz was still a construction site until recently, confirmed the KIJA, echoing observations from the Ombudsman. Along with this, there are "structural problems," said the Vienna Child and Youth Advocate Sebastian Öhner to the media on Tuesday afternoon. For instance, the infrastructure for leisure activities is "largely not yet completed." A so-called sports yard was still unused at the end of June.
The new youth prison, designed for 72 male inmates aged between 14 and 18 years, is "not yet equipped as it should be," criticized the Vienna KIJA. There is especially a lack of staff on the part of the prison guards.
Girls Disadvantaged in Detention
The situation is precarious for girls who come into detention. Due to the comparatively low proportion of female inmates, there is no separate section for female juveniles in the JA Josefstadt. They are housed with adult women, which - as the KIJA emphasizes - will not change in the future.
This has serious consequences: "Not only is the separation requirement from adults violated, but visits from social educators often have to be canceled." Incarcerated girls also have significantly fewer leisure opportunities than the boys. Access to psychiatric care is also more difficult for them.
(APA/red.)
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