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CRIME

‘One-man prison’ cost €4.3 million

A German state spent €4.3 million on a prison which only had one inmate and then closed, according to a report on Thursday. The single inmate was accompanied by 26 members of staff for a year.

Published: 12 December 2013 16:52 CET
'One-man prison' cost €4.3 million
One of the many empty cells in the now closed prison. Photo: DPA

The prison in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, was revamped into a therapy centre for mentally-ill, violent offenders in 2011. It had room for 18 prisoners and cost just over €1 million to convert.

A further €2 million was spent on 26 staff members in one year which included six security guards.

Therapy, meals, medical care, transportation and building management cost another €175,425. And €1 million was blown on furnishings and fittings.

But in 12 months from mid-2011 to mid-2012 it had a single inmate – a sexual offender from Bavaria, the West Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Thursday.

He was joined for one week by another inmate and who was then released.

The prison has now turned into a political row with the Christian Democrats (CDU) in Oberhausen blaming the Social Democrats (SPD) for the mess.

Wilhelm Hausmann, a CDU member in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, led an inquiry into  the spending.

He said the costs were an “appalling waste of taxpayers’ money” and gave Oberhausen a bad reputation.

The facility closed on December 31st 2012 and was meant to be demolished, but there are now plans to turn it into a hotel for prison visitors.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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