More staff. This is the main demand the Association of Prison Officers of Luxembourg (AAP) is directing at politicians. The union’s president, Samir Djennas, reiterated the demand during an appearance on RTL on Monday.
Last Tuesday, an inmate violently attacked a prison officer at Givenich Prison. In response, the association highlighted the realities of the job and the risks prison officers face daily in facilities across the country.
More than 50 attacks or attempted attacks against prison officers were recorded last year, a slight increase compared with previous years. “Preventing this entirely is not possible, considering the environment which we work in”, Djennas said, explaining that prisons bring together people with very different personalities and backgrounds. to which prison officers have to react in different ways too. According to the AAP president, improving safety largely comes down to staffing levels.
“We work under the bare minimum of conditions on a daily basis, which means safety can no longer be guaranteed”, he said. There are not enough officers to escort prisoners during transfers or to maintain a constant presence alongside them. With around 600 staff across Luxembourg’s three prison sites, the Schrassig prison, the Uerschterhaff penitentiary centre, and the Givenich penitentiary centre, there are not enough people to provide round-the-clock service 24 hours a day. 7/7. As staffing levels are already stretched, management regularly calls in officers who are on leave or on their days off, which Djennas says negatively affects staff morale.
At the same time, the sector is struggling to attract new recruits. However, Djennas does not believe the shortage is solely due to the risks associated with the job. He notes that the profession also has positive aspects and that daily life in prison is not as dramatic as it is sometimes portrayed in television series. Instead, he believes the issue may be one of visibility, arguing that more needs to be done to raise awareness about the profession and encourage new candidates to apply.
The AAP president also shared concerns regarding overcrowding, particularly at Schrassig and Uerschterhaff. The fuller the prisons become, the more tense the atmosphere is, making conditions more difficult for both inmates and prison officers, he explained. Limited space also makes it harder to separate prisoners who may not get along.
In some cases, minors may temporarily end up in the same facilities as adults, as in the case of the 14-year-old student who recently stabbed a fellow pupil in Limpertsberg. Djennas described this situation as unacceptable for prison staff and all parties involved. He added that minors are naturally supervised differently and kept separate whenever possible. However, when there is no available space in specialised facilities, prison authorities sometimes have no other option.
Djennas has worked as a prison officer for 12 years and says the profession has changed drastcally during that time. Officers are no longer simply responsible for opening and closing cells but now carry out a much broader range of social and supervisory duties. At the same time, he says attitudes among inmates have changed. Djenna stated that there is less respect for officers, and the threshold for violence has fallen, noting that threats against prison officers occur regularly. To illustrate this, he spoke as if refferring to a saying from older men: “In the old days, we’d have a fight outside the café, then go in for a drink together. Nowadays, when you see that even at secondary school they’re pulling out knives, I don’t need to spell out what that means for us, all crammed into the same place.”
Working in such an environment can also affect officers’ private lives.
Prison officers are confined with inmates, allowing prisoners to learn personal details about the officers. They know their faces and names, and depending on the inmate and their behaviour, this can sometimes have consequences outside the prison. Some officers are even cautious about where they go in public with their families. “You think twice about where you go with your children,” Djennas explained, noting that prison officers sometimes avoid crowded public places for security reasons. He added: “I don’t take my children to the Schueberfouer at 5pm. There are people in civil society who already avoid certain places for specific reasons, even though they do not have the same daily contact with inmates that we do.”
While prison officers do not carry weapons, they are allowed to use pepper spray to improve safety. Irritant spray devices have been purchased and training sessions have been organised on their use, Djennas explained. However, he disclosed that the spray canisters have yet to be deployed in practice.
