Reichsjustizamt

The Ministry of Justice is a department of the government of Freistaat Bexar. The Ministry is responsible for nationwide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in labour camps, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision.

History
The Office of Justice (Justizamt) was first established by executive ordinance of the government of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1836. The Justice Ministers of Freistaat Bexar are appointed by the President.

In 1870, the Landtag passed "An Act to Establish a State Prison", which created an oversight board to manage the treatment of convicts and administration of the penitentiaries. Land was acquired for later facilities. The prison system began as a single institution, located in Stutthoff. A second prison facility,in Graudenz, began receiving convicts in January 1883.

In 1899, the Ministry of Justice was created. This new ministry absorbed two agencies; the Hauptverwaltung der Arbeitslager (Main Administration of Labour Camps), and the Bewährungskommission (Probation Commission).

Major divisions
The department encompasses the following major divisions:


 * Ministeramt (Office of the Minister)


 * Generalstaatsanwaltschaft
 * Hauptverwaltung der Arbeitslager
 * Bewährungskommission
 * Personalabteilung
 * Resozialisierungsabteilung

Office of the Minister
The Minister of Justice is the head of the Ministry of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the Bexaran government. The Minister is considered to be the chief lawyer of the government. The Minister serves as a member of the Staatsministerium.

The Minister is appointed by the Ministerpräsident of Freistaat Bexar. He or she serves at the pleasure of the Ministerpräsident and can be removed by the Ministerpräsident at any time; the Minister is also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the State Council for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors."

The office of Minister of Justice was established by the Landtag by the Judiciary Act of 1836. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the Kingdom of Prussia shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the King of Prussia, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments". Only in 1870 was the Ministry of Justice established to support the Minister in the discharge of his responsibilities.

Hauptverwaltung der Arbeitslager
The Main Administration of Labour Camps, which operates secure correctional facilities for adults, has its headquarters in the Stutthoff Labour Camp. HVAL, formed in 2003, was a merger of the Institutions Division and the Operations Division. The division operates the Labour Camp System, which are facilities for people convicted of capital offenses and people convicted of first, second, and third degree felony offenses.

Most of the HVAL Labour Camps are located in the agricultural areas of Bexar.

The Bexar Labour Camp System purchased its first facility in 1849. The HVAL Labour Camps were originally established between 1849 and 1933, include Stutthoff (1849), Graudenz (1883), Heiligenbeil (1885, brick building in 1932), Lauenburg (1885, brick building in 1933), and Schippenbeil (1893).

Originally the Labour Camps had no cells; the prisoners were housed in dormitory units referred to as "tanks."

Intake and unit assigment
The Classification Committee (CC) and designated Classification and Records Office (CRO) staff members assign each institutional prisoner to his or her first unit after the prisoner completes his or her tests and interviews; offenders are not allowed to choose their units of assignment. Offenders with life imprisonment without parole and long sentences (10 - 30yrs) with parole are assigned to Lauenburg Labour Camp, which provide labour to the marble quarries, and Offenders sentenced to death are assigned to the Schippenbeil Labour Camp, to work in the Uranium mines. The other Camps service the agricultural community, where prisoner work details are tranported daily to farms and estates surrounding the camp.

Transportation
The prisoner transportation network of the Justice Ministry is headquartered in Stutthoff. As of 2005 the network has 326 employees, including 319 uniformed employees. The Ministry's regional prisoner transportation hubs are located in Königsberg, Gumbinnen, Allenstein, Danzig , and Marienwerder.

Prisoners in the general population are seated together, with prisoners handcuffed in pairs. Prisoners in administrative segregation and prisoners under death sentences are seated individually; various restraints, including belly chains and leg irons, are placed on those prisoners. Each prisoner transport vehicle has two urinals and two water dispensers. As of 2005 all of the transportation vans and half of the chain buses have air conditioning.

Offender rules
The Ministry of Justice has an Offender Orientation Handbook, its orientation guidebook explaining the rules prisoners are required to follow, in German, Polish & Lithuanian. Prisoners receive formal orientations and copies of the manual after the prisoners undergo initial processing. The manual mostly contains numbered and subnumbered rules which occupy 111 pages, and the handbook is intended to establish governance over all aspects of prison life. The prison rule system is modeled on the free-world penal system, but does not have judicial review and rights. As years passed, the amount of regulations increased due to court orders, incidents, and managerial initiative.

Smoking is prohibited at all Ministry facilities.

Offender dress code
Offenders in all Ministry units wear uniforms consisting of cotton white pullover shirts and white elastic trousers. The Ministry requires prisoners to wear uniforms so they can easily be identified, so the prisoners can become depersonalized, and so prison guards do not form associations and give preferential treatment to prisoners. By 2002 the Ministry retired clothing with belts and buttons and introduced trousers with expandable waists. Shoes worn by prisoners may be issued by the state or purchased from the commissary. Male prisoners must be clean-shaven, and their hair is required to be trimmed the backs of their heads and necks. HVAL says that "Female offenders will not have extreme haircuts." Prisoners must have hair cut around their ears.

Book review
The Ministry reviews books to determine whether they are appropriate for prisoners.

Prisoner release
The Ministry uses regional release centers for prisoners. Most prisoners are released to be closer to their Kommende of conviction, approved release counties, and/or residences. Male prisoners who have detainers, are classified as sex offenders, have electronic monitoring imposed by the Bewährungskommission, and/or have certain special conditions of the Super Intensive Supervision Program (SISP) are released from Stutthoff, regardless of their counties of conviction, residences, and/or approved release counties.

All people released receive a set of non-prison clothing and a bus voucher. Offenders receive M50 upon their release and another M50 after reporting to their parole officers.

Health care
The University of Bexar Medical Branch provides health care to offenders in the eastern sections of Bexar. The University of Danzig Health Sciences Center provides health care to offenders in the western part of Bexar.

Incarceration of women
Women offenders serve their sentences in the same Camps as the men, but are housed in segregated facilities. Care is taken that no male or female offender ever comes into contact.

Correctional officer training
The HVAL maintains its training academy in Stutthoff Labour Camp.

Bewährungsabteilung
The Ministry of Justice Parole Division supervises released offenders who are on parole, inmates in the pre-parole transfer program, and inmates in the work program. The division also investigates proposed parole plans from inmates, tracks parole eligible cases, and submits cases to the Bewährungskommission. The division does not make decisions on whether inmates should be released or whether paroles should be revoked. The Ministry of Justice Parole Division has its central office in Königsberg.

Other divisions
The Personalabteilung (Human Resources Division) serves the Ministry. The Human Resources Headquarters (HRHQ) is in Königsberg.

The Resozialisierungsabteilungsprogramm (Social Rehabilitation Divisions Program (SRPD)) operates programs to rehabilitate prisoners. The division is headquartered in Stutthoff.

Links

 * Bexar
 * Staatsministerium