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Lock down

The country's first detention facility for psychologically disturbed criminals set to open in Brno

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 18th, 2008 issue

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The new center will be the first of three in Moravia, with construction planned for additional institutions in Opava and Vidnava.
JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The facility's head psychologist, Petr Stožický, will receive the first batch of patients in January, when a new secured-detention law takes effect.
JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The center will feature thick walls, barbed wire and watchtowers.
On June 9, authorities in Hradec Králové, east Bohemia, di­­vulged the details of a shocking crime. After dragging ponds and scouring local forests, police officers discovered the body of 9-year-old Jakub Šimánek, whose mother had reported him missing weeks earlier. He had been raped and murdered by Antonín Novák, a repeat sex offender from Slovakia who confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest.
Šimánek was not Novák’s first victim.According to police, the 43-year-old had served a four-year sentence in Slovakia for sexually abusing minors. After completing this sentence, the courts ordered him institutionalized, but later relaxed the order to outpatient care, which Novák never underwent. Wanted by Slovak police for violating the court order and other offenses, he worked illegally in the Czech Republic and often changed residences.
Now Slovak and Czech authorities are asking how it’s possible that a dangerous sex offender was able to slip through the system.
In an effort to prevent such crimes in the future, the Czech government recently completed construction of the first detention facility for dangerous psychologically impaired criminals.
Unveiled April 15, the heavily guarded Brno facility features new types of security measures to protect the public against these types of criminals.
“It is meant for extremely dangerous individuals whose psychological state causes them to commit serious crimes,” Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil said. “In these cases, there exists a realistic possibility that they will continue to commit crimes in the future, especially when regular treatment has little chance of success.”
Warded by a thick wall, barbed wire and several watchtowers, the new detention facility straddles the role of high-security prisons and traditional psychiatric institutes, which often lack sufficient security staff.
“The psychiatric clinics where these high-risk individuals are currently placed are healthcare-oriented, so they don’t have the technology and personnel needed for adequate security,” Justice Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová said. “Field experts repeatedly point out that these people often tyrannize the entire department, attack employees and other patients, and often cause serious injuries.”
The first inmates will arrive at the Brno facility in January, when a new law on secured detention is slated to take effect.
 Petr Stožický, the head psychologist at the facility, said the 25.5 million Kč ($1.6 million) project took decades to accomplish.
“Psychologists have been urging the construction of such a facility since at least the 1970s,” he said. “It always received support across the political spectrum, but, somehow, politicians had always turned their attention to other priorities.”
A new approach
The detention facility is designed for individuals with two types of mental disorders. The first, Stožický said, comprises those who suffer from long-term insanity, such as schizophrenic or mentally disabled individuals who prove uncooperative in regular psychiatric institutions.
“There is only a handful of these types of inmates,” Stožický said. “Their principal needs will be medication, hygiene and rehabilitation.”
The second, wider category of inmates includes individuals like Novák.
“These are serious offenders who commit a crime under the influence of their psychological disorders,” Stožický said. “These people know what they are doing when they commit the crime, but cannot help themselves.”
Such people may be committed to the detention facility after serving their regular prison sentences, adding a rehabilitative component to their institutionalization. “A psychopathic murderer, for example, has no chance of recovery in a regular prison. Instead of releasing him and risking that he commits another murder, the state can send him here.”
According to Stožický, these types of delinquents — who include psychopaths, sexual deviants and hard-core drug addicts — will be subject to a daily routine of work, education and therapeutic activities such as tennis.
While certain mental disorders cannot be cured, most can be corrected and subdued. “If the person cooperates, he can learn to work with his deviation, strengthen his will and learn to concentrate on other activities,” Stožický said, adding that the courts will periodically evaluate each inmate’s progress.
If they are cooperative, inmates may eventually be placed in regular mental institutions or even ambulatory care. “The system is organized in a way that enables movement between various types of institutions,” Stožický said.
Conversely, an uncooperative inmate may be sent back to the detention facility for an indefinite amount of time. “Theoretically, it is possible for people to stay here for the rest of their lives,” Stožický said.
Although the facility can only accommodate 48 inmates, Stožický does not expect it to fill up immediately. “The courts must first learn to work with this new type of institution,” he said. “It’s too early to predict the interpretation of the [law on secured detention]. In any case, I don’t expect there to be a line of inmates come January.”
In addition to the Brno facility, the government plans to construct two larger detention facilities in Opava and Vidnava in north Moravia, he added.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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