Six weeks after the deadly knife attack on passengers on a regional train in Brokstedt, the opposition accuses Hamburg’s Senator for Justice, Anna Gallina (Green Party), of inaction. “Check, check, check: The judicial authority has simply given itself some air with its grandiose announcements – for hardly any of the proposed measures have concepts been developed so far,” says the judicial policy spokeswoman for the left in the citizenship, Cansu Özdemir, in an interview with WELT.
A recent small question from the MPs revealed that the authority had neither an idea of the conceptual design nor was there any concrete information about the necessary staff.
The stateless Palestinian Ibrahim A. is suspected of having killed a 17-year-old girl and her 19-year-old friend and injured five other people on a train from Kiel to Hamburg on January 25. Shortly before entering Brokstedt station (Steinburg district), the 33-year-old attacked the train passengers with a knife. An arrest warrant was issued against Ibrahim A. for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted manslaughter. The Palestinian was only released from custody in Hamburg a few days before Brokstedt committed the crime.
As a result, Hamburg’s Justice Senator Gallina and Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) presented a package of measures in mid-February. Accordingly, from now on, prisoners on remand who are in prison for a violent crime and who are aggressively conspicuous or who are drug addicts should be looked at. In concrete terms: Transitional coaches are supposed to conduct transitional talks with the detainees while they are still in custody.
“These measures help the prisoners during and after their imprisonment and at the same time protect society, because social factors such as homelessness, poverty, drug abuse or mental illness are risk factors for committing crimes,” the red-green Senate responded to the question from the opposition Özdemir . These aspects would also be taken into account in the respective case assessment.
The authorities want to react to possible dangers after release at an early stage in cooperation with the prison system, security authorities, public prosecutor’s office and immigration authorities. Furthermore, in the future, all indications of extremist attitudes by prisoners must be forwarded to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the state security police. According to the Senate, the immediate measures should be implemented “with the existing staff and the available resources”. The situation is different with extensive new measures. The determination of the necessary additional requirements is ongoing.
The left MP Özdemir, however, only recognizes “full-bodied announcements”. Because neither with regard to the planned transition talks nor the introduction of the transition coaches “are there any concrete concepts”. The same applies to the expansion of the personal prevention program to include prisoners on remand. Özdemir’s conclusion: “Something was promised here that – if at all – will only be realized in the distant future.” The left-wing MP adds: “And that can’t be the lesson from the terrible events in Brokstedt.”
Since 2019, Hamburg has had a much-noticed resocialization and victim support law, with which the city-state was not only the first federal state to interlink inpatient and outpatient support services. Since then, the 21-page paper has also guaranteed every prisoner in the Hanseatic city a legal right to transitional management, i.e. support from prison to a life free of punishment.
Four years later, the law is under scrutiny because of Brokstedt’s fatal knife attack – especially with regard to prisoners on remand. Although the presumption of innocence applies to these detainees, they should nevertheless receive “offers to prepare for their release”, anchored in Section 11 of the Resocialization Act.
According to the Senate’s response to a small inquiry by CDU parliamentarian Richard Seelmaecker, 96 prisoners and 92 prisoners on remand were released from the six Hamburg prisons in January of this year alone. A total of around 2,000 people are imprisoned in the Hanseatic city.
“A law alone does not change practice – what is decisive is the process of implementation, which is jointly motivated and designed by all specialists and managers,” criminal and social policy expert Bernd Maelicke recently told WELT AM SONNTAG. Because nationwide, about half of the released offenders re-offend. This specifies the tasks for a social rehabilitation law: reduce relapses by intensive and repeat offenders, i.e. improve social integration after release and thus public and personal security.
An evaluation of the Hamburg Resocialization and Victim Assistance Act is currently being carried out by the University of Hamburg. The judiciary cannot anticipate the results, but Senator Gallina has announced that the law will be optimized as part of the evaluation. The situation of prisoners on remand will be checked again – also, with which offers the care can be improved, according to the authority.
