For female offenders in women's forensics, the time between the years is particularly difficult

Created: 12/30/2022, 09:00

By: Michaele Heske

Forensics: Many women live here hoping for a better future.

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In the women's forensic center in Taufkirchen, female offenders with addiction problems or other mental illnesses are resocialized.

After successful therapy, they are taken into the care of the probation service in Erding.

The days from Christmas to the turn of the year are a special challenge - fear and loneliness become more noticeable.

Taufkirchen

– Christmas isn't important at all, at least that's what most of the subjects who come to Andrea Frauendorfer's office say.

In fact, many of them have never experienced a peaceful and harmonious festival like the advertisements make it seem.

"Somehow everyone thinks that only happy people are sitting behind the brightly lit windows with their loved ones - a distorted picture." But you are alone.

And sad.

Frauendorfer, who runs the Erding probation service, helps offenders to find their place in society again.

“Personal stocktaking is often drawn up between the years,” she knows.

This is rarely positive for her subjects, which also triggers crises.

There was also loneliness, excessive expectations and family problems.

The vita of the delinquent women, who Frauendorfer looks after after therapy at the Isar-Amper-Klinikum, often reads like a thriller: Parental neglect, domestic violence or mental cruelty are the causes for the drift into addiction, depression, psychosis or personality disorder.

"Broken home" - that's what it's called. The Isar-Amper-Klinik is currently housing around 100 female offenders who got into trouble with the law because of their alcohol or drug addiction and were sentenced to withdrawal therapy.

This saves them jail, but they have to go through a rigorous program during the two-year therapy.

Others end up in psychiatry, for example when major depression or psychosis leads the court to conclude

they are a danger to the general public.

There is no time limit here, the therapy lasts an average of seven years - almost 70 patients are currently being treated here.

The criminals no longer see the thick walls that separate them from the outside world, but they feel the cold of the prison that separates them from their families.

"I haven't seen my children for over three years," says one patient.

The 29-year-old smuggled crystal meth from the Czech Republic to Bavaria.

Her daughters have been living with a foster family since their incarceration.

The women are not only tormented by homesickness, but also by a guilty conscience towards their children, says a nurse.

"Because of their addiction, they neglected their offspring, the youth welfare office took their kids away from them." Feelings that are hard to bear when you are sober.

"Confronting one's own life is a stressful and highly emotional task - but important for healing."

The fear of the future and the processing of criminal offenses weigh heavily on the patient's soul: "It's stressful and infuriating - especially during the Christmas holidays." One tries to make these days easier for women, explains Henner Lüttecke, spokesman for the Isar -Amper Clinic.

Church services would be offered, the stations would be festively decorated.

The first post-corona Christmas was much easier again, he says.

"The time of the pandemic was a big challenge for everyone - we had to ban visitors." That was getting on my nerves, and the staff was also under constant stress.

"It's always hard to be locked up - but that time was brutal."

Many of the patients currently in prison will spend next Christmas in freedom.

The chances of rehabilitation are good.

"A lot depends on partnership and social and professional integration," says a nurse.

"The little bit of luck shouldn't be missing either." And Frauendorfer adds: "It's also important to be convinced that you can take your fate into your own hands again."