2023-09-05 12:33:00
The German Society for Trans Identity and Intersex (DGTI) estimates that there are up to half a million transgender people in Germany. Most recently, on August 23, the German government approved a draft new law on personal self-determination: from now on, to change data about a field or name, it will be enough just to fill out a questionnaire at the registry office. The new rules will apply to transgender, intersex and non-binary people who do not identify with their birth sex. The law still has to be approved by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
Penelope Frank – German environmental activistPhoto: Jonas Gehring/IMAGO
However, Penelope Frank does not have time to wait for the law to take effect. The Last Generation eco-activist and trans woman is already awaiting trial and a possible sentence in her case. In 2022, she glued herself to a runway in Berlin. If Penelope is found guilty of shutting down the capital’s airport, Penelope could be imprisoned. And since according to the documents she is still a man, she faces a men’s prison.
Are German penitentiaries ready to accept transgender people?
“Obviously no one has thought about the work of the security forces until now,” says René Müller, chairman of the Penitentiary Union of Germany. “Of course, we have to watch them to protect them. “We don’t have the people to do this all the time. We feel like the Department of Justice has left us alone with this problem.”
René Müller, Union of Penitentiary Workers in GermanyPhoto: privat
About 60,000 prisoners are currently being held in 200 German penitentiaries, Müller said, and the prisons are already suffering from a shortage of staff. Currently, there is a shortage of about 2,000 employees. The lack of staff is the inability to take care of each plus or minus individually, the inability to study in detail the personal file of each prisoner and intervene in the situation at the moment when it is required.
Correctional institutions in Germany are run by the federal states. “It is impossible to give all the powers to the federal states or even to leave correctional institutions alone with the problem. They will have to justify their decisions themselves, and in the event that something happens there, they will have to take full responsibility. But this is does not work,” criticizes the system René Müller.
Currently, the federal states are not unanimous on what measures should be taken in order to provide conditions for transgender people to safely serve their sentences. Some have already organized separate places for transgender prisoners, others have developed methodological recommendations, and others have provided additional staff training. The issue of placement has to be decided individually. This is not so easy, since there is a strict gender separation in correctional institutions – men and women should not serve their sentences together.
René Müller advocates individual placement and separate places of detention for transgender people: “Each federal state must take into account that transgender people need to be individually housed both in pre-trial detention and while serving their sentences. And the task of the ministries is to ensure that in all institutions necessary conditions, including the number of personnel, logistics and funding. This is what we demand from politicians.”
How to protect prisoners from bullying and violence?
Lawyer Thomas Galli (Thomas Galli) is ready to subscribe to every word of Rene Muller. He knows German prisons like the back of his hand. The lawyer once managed two penitentiary institutions, and since 2016 he has been working as a lawyer in Augsburg, because he is sure that in this way he will be able to achieve changes in the system faster. It is no coincidence that it was he who represented the interests of the trans woman Annemarie House, who served almost two years for fraud.
Lawyer Thomas GalliPhoto: Andreas Burkhardt
“Fortunately, they managed to release her quickly. But it was obvious that the prisons were completely unprepared to contain trans people,” says Galli. “They are kept for months in prison hospitals or isolated in some other way, because there is no understanding where they to do and what to do with them. While serving her sentence, Annemarie House managed to sit in both the men’s prison and the women’s prison, the lawyer says. The process of obtaining an expert opinion as to where it would be appropriate for her to serve her sentence dragged on for several months. The case of Annemarie House vividly illustrates the fact that prisons are completely unprepared to accommodate transgender people.
“In most prisons, outright machismo and worship of male power is very widespread, and it is very far from tolerance. There are many young men there, including problematic cases with violent tendencies. Fears that transgender people will be bullied there, possibly sexually to harass or attack them are justified,” lawyer Thomas Galli said.
According to him, there are already rooms in prisons for prisoners with special needs – for example, geriatric departments for the detention of elderly prisoners. In any case, transgender people should have a say in deciding which prison they will be sent to. Lawyer Thomas Galli demands that special provisions be provided in the laws of all federal states. “It is necessary to develop specialized training programs for staff. And it is necessary to create departments for people who are not suitable for either male or female prisons,” the experienced lawyer is sure.
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