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Manfred Lucha (Alliance 90/The Greens), Minister for Social Affairs and Integration in Baden-Württemberg, speaks in the state parliament at a meeting of the social committee of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg.
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
21 lawyers report in a letter about allegedly “massive abuses” in a facility for addicted criminals.
The responsible minister has now rejected the criticism in the state parliament.
Stuttgart - Repeated outbreaks, reports of suspected abuses, a death: the enforcement measures in Baden-Württemberg do not escape the headlines.
After an incendiary letter from several lawyers about alleged abuses in the “Fauler Pelz” rehabilitation center in Heidelberg, the Social Committee dealt with the situation regarding the enforcement of measures on Wednesday.
Social Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) rejected the allegations.
A patient also recently died at the facility.
Lucha said on Wednesday in the state parliament in Stuttgart that he could not conclude any omissions or misconduct from the information available to him.
21 lawyers had signed a letter about “undignified and scandalous” conditions in the “Faulen Pelz” in Heidelberg.
Among other things, they criticize a significant lack of therapy services and nursing staff as well as aggressive security forces who would even offer drugs.
These allegations were investigated several times, but the employees were unable to prove anything, said the chief physician at the Center for Psychiatry in Calw, Matthias Wagner, who is also responsible for the “lazy fur”.
In addition, the lawyers complain about massive structural defects in the facility, as stated in the letter that became known on Tuesday.
The building is still not fully furnished to this day.
Showers are sometimes unusable because only very hot water comes out of the tap.
There was an increase in mold.
“Yes, it’s true, the company had to adjust a bit at first,” said Lucha.
But the deficiencies have now subsided.
The complaints are taken very seriously, said Lucha.
The letter from the lawyers never reached the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The opposition sharply criticized the alleged deficiencies in the facility.
What can be read in the lawyers' letter is more reminiscent of "a Russian prison than a psychiatric facility in Baden-Württemberg," said SPD MP Dorothea Kliche-Behnke.
The FDP MP Jochen Haußmann said: “If you read this fire letter, the lazy fur is developing into the Alcatraz of Baden-Württemberg.” The high-security prison on the island of Alcatraz in the Bay of San Francisco was one of the prisons until it was closed in the 1960s most notorious in the USA.
Around two weeks ago, a 27-year-old patient died in the facility in Heidelberg; according to the Heidelberg public prosecutor's office, the cause of death was initially unclear.
“From what we hear, the patient is said to have consumed drugs.
The structures must be such that these cases do not happen,” criticized Kliche-Behnke at the committee meeting.
Lucha referred to the autopsy results that are still pending.
It is still unclear whether the death in “Lazy Fur” was related to drugs.
But: “The spread and consumption of addictive substances cannot be completely ruled out in the penal system,” said Lucha.
There are currently problems nationwide with so-called synthetic cannabinoids.
These substances are very difficult to detect and difficult to control.
The former “Fauler Pelz” prison has been used as a correctional facility since August and has 80 places.
The use of the former prison for correctional measures is planned as an interim solution until the summer of 2025.
Addicted and mentally ill offenders are accommodated and treated in the penal system.
The facilities are always in the headlines.
Last year, for example, a mentally ill man escaped from the prison in Wiesloch in the Rhein-Neckar district and attacked a 30-year-old in the city with a previously stolen knife.
The woman died in hospital shortly after the attack.
The alleged perpetrator has been in court since Tuesday.
The public prosecutor's office assumes that the now 34-year-old was unable to see the injustice of his actions at the time of the crime due to mental illness.
dpa