What is the state of healthcare for people in prison? The Y-Kollektiv, a web format of the public broadcaster, looked into this topic. For her film, author Anne Thiele accompanies criminologist Prof. Dr. Christine Graebsch. She is an expert in criminal and migration law and teaches at the Faculty of Applied Social Studies at Fachhochschule Dortmund. The almost 30-minute documentary is freely accessible on several channels.
Prison is primarily about punishment and detention and not about support and care. One indication of this is that the cost of medical care for prisoners is significantly lower than outside the prison walls, reports the taz newspaper(Opens in a new tab) . Yet people in prison are generally sicker than people in freedom. Many of them come from poverty or are drug addicts. Their care is regulated by law. However, there is a gap between prisoners' legal entitlements to healthcare and actual practice, emphasizes Prof. Graebsch.
At Fachhochschule Dortmund, the lawyer heads the Prison Archive, an institution that aims to shed light on the reality in prisons. FH students support her in her work. The Prison Archive also offers free legal advice for prisoners. Health issues are a recurring theme. Christine Graebsch criticizes the fact that prison staff are unable to provide adequate medical care for prisoners. This particularly affects chronically ill people and those with mental illnesses. It is therefore calling for better staffing levels in prisons and the expansion of preventative measures to promote health.
The Y-Kollektiv documentary also follows a nurse in her everyday life in a prison. It was recently broadcast on Tagesschau24, among others.