Image copyright EPA Image caption Prisoners can be seen escaping from a shaft in the wall on the left in this video-surveillance footage

Berlin authorities are the target of ridicule and disbelief after nine prisoners escaped or absconded from one prison in the space of five days.

Six remain on the run from Plötzensee jail after four separate incidents.

Last Thursday, four inmates used an angle grinder and hammer from the prison workshop to break through a ventilation shaft. They then crept under the perimeter fence.

Despite CCTV capturing the escape, it was 41 minutes before it was noticed.

Two of the four prisoners - who were serving sentences for theft, aggravated assault and extortion - are reported to be still at large.

Berlin's Senator of Justice Dirk Behrendt has so far faced down calls for him to resign, saying he has assembled a commission of experts to eliminate vulnerabilities in the prison system.

In the other incidents:

On Friday 29 December, it emerged that a prisoner had failed to return from day release on Thursday

On Monday 1, January authorities disclosed that two prisoners had escaped overnight through the window of a neighbouring cell - one returned voluntarily

On Tuesday 2 January, Mr Behrendt revealed two more prisoners had escaped over the weekend, though it is unclear whether they broke out or failed to return from day release.

The incidents were mocked by some on Twitter.

"Plötzensee jail is like the Berghain [famed Berlin nightclub]. It is easier to get out than in," quipped one.

Another commentator joked that in light of their "speedy planning and implementation of a construction project", those who escaped last Thursday should immediately be put in charge of the building of the long-delayed Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

Open season over escapes

By Damien McGuinness, BBC News, Berlin

It's "open house" at Berlin's prisons, mocked one politician. "This jail is like a hostel, where you can come and go whenever you want," tweeted another.

Nine prison escapes in five days from the same prison is something of a record. So opposition politicians are calling for Berlin's Senator of Justice Dirk Behrendt to be sacked.

In his defence, technically speaking not all of the cases were breakouts: Some inmates were serving open-prison sentences with minimal supervision. But some of them even opted to climb out of the window, rather than simply not return from permitted appointments, leading to questions about the building's security.

And in the most spectacular case, CCTV cameras filmed prisoners hammering their way through a ventilation shaft - but the alarm was still raised too late.

While in opposition Mr Behrendt, who's from the Green Party, earned respect for fighting for better conditions in Berlin's prisons. When he was put in charge of jails last year promised a more human approach to prisoners. Now conservative opponents are accusing him of simply being too lenient instead.

Security measures in the prison, which permits inmates to leave the jail on day release in order to work, are less stringent than in other jails.

But opponents of Mr Behrendt lined up to call for his resignation nonetheless.

Florian Graf, who leads the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) in Berlin's state parliament, said he was a "dilettante", while Joschka Langenbrinck, a deputy for the Social Democrats (SPD) bloc said the affair was a "reason for a senator to resign".

Mr Behrendt's spokesperson pointed out there had been no overall increase in the number of breakouts under his tenure.</s>BERLIN (AP) - One of four inmates who broke out of a prison in Berlin last week turned himself in Tuesday, a city official said, promising a review of security precautions at the facility after an embarrassing series of lapses.

On Thursday, four men used a hammer to break down part of a concrete wall at the Ploetzensee prison before climbing over a barbed-wire fence. City justice minister Dirk Behrendt said one of them has now turned himself in and will be sent to a higher-security facility.

Behrendt said five other prisoners who work outside the prison during the day but are supposed to return there overnight went missing between Thursday and Monday - one of whom has since been caught by police.

FILE - In this Dec. 28, 2017 file photo a cameraman films the broken ventilation slot at the workshop building on the ground of the Ploetzensee prison in Berlin, Germany, where four detainees have escaped from a local prison. A Berlin city government official says one of the four inmates has turned himself in Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 and will be sent to a higher-security facility. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP, file)

Opponents of Berlin's center-left city government are calling for Behrendt's resignation over the escapes. The minister said in a statement that "annoyance" over the lapses was "understandable" and all security precautions at Ploetzensee will be reviewed.

Staff at the prison will be strengthened and a panel of internal and external security experts will analyze and tackle any weaknesses, he added.

It's common in Germany for people who are serving sentences for lesser offenses or are in prison because they failed to pay fines to be granted the chance of leaving the facility during the day after a while.

Such facilities are less heavily secured than other prisons.

FILE - In this Dec. 28, 2017 file photo the entrance of the Ploetzensee prison is pictured in Berlin, Germany, where four detainees have escaped from a local prison. A Berlin city government official says one of the four inmates has turned himself in Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 and will be sent to a higher-security facility. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP, file)</s>A PRISONER WHO escaped from a Berlin prison last week turned himself in today.

On Thursday, four men broke down part of a concrete wall at Ploetzensee prison with a hammer and angle grinder from their prison workshop.

View of the 'Justizvollzugsanstalt' (Facility for the Execution of Justice, JVA) Ploetzensee during the morning in Berlin Source: DPA/PA Images

The convicts – doing time for theft, extortion and aggravated assault – broke out through a ventilation shaft before slipping underneath a barbed-wire fence.

A surveillance camera captured the escape, but it took 41 minutes for wardens to sound the alarm.

A video still from a surveillance camera depicts a prison break at the Ploetzensee penitentiary Source: DPA/PA Images

It’s now understood that in total nine people escaped the city prison in walkouts and jailbreaks over the past week.

Five other prisoners who work outside the prison during the day under the open-prison policy – but are supposed to return there overnight – also went missing.

Two of them escaped through a cell window overnight on Monday even though they could have walked out of the prison door the next morning. One of those prisoners was caught the following day.

Today, city justice minister Dirk Behrendt said one of the prisoners who escaped on Thursday has now turned himself in and will be sent to a higher-security facility.

There have been calls for Behrendt’s resignation with many people mocking the penal facility’s “open door” policy on social media.

In a statement Behrendt said that “annoyance” over the lapses was “understandable” and all security precautions at Ploetzensee will be reviewed.</s>BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin city official says one of the four inmates who escaped from a prison in the German capital last week has turned himself in.

On Thursday, four men used a hammer to break down part of a concrete wall at the Ploetzensee prison before climbing over a barbed-wire fence.

In an unrelated incident the same day, an inmate who worked outside the prison during the day failed to return in the evening. And on Monday, two more prisoners at the same facility escaped — one of whom then returned.

City justice minister Dirk Behrendt wrote on Twitter that one of Thursday’s escapees turned himself in Tuesday and will be sent to a higher-security facility.

Opponents of Berlin’s center-left city government are calling for Behrendt’s resignation over the many escapes.</s>BERLIN — One of four inmates who broke out of a prison in Berlin last week turned himself in Tuesday, a city official said, promising a review of security precautions at the facility after an embarrassing series of lapses.

On Thursday, four men used a hammer to break down part of a concrete wall at the Ploetzensee prison before climbing over a barbed-wire fence. City justice minister Dirk Behrendt said one of them has now turned himself in and will be sent to a higher-security facility.

Behrendt said five other prisoners who work outside the prison during the day but are supposed to return there overnight went missing between Thursday and Monday — one of whom has since been caught by police.

Opponents of Berlin’s centre-left city government are calling for Behrendt’s resignation over the escapes. The minister said in a statement that “annoyance” over the lapses was “understandable” and all security precautions at Ploetzensee will be reviewed.

Staff at the prison will be strengthened and a panel of internal and external security experts will analyze and tackle any weaknesses, he added.

It’s common in Germany for people who are serving sentences for lesser offences or are in prison because they failed to pay fines to be granted the chance of leaving the facility during the day after a while.

Such facilities are less heavily secured than other prisons.</s>Berlin ups number of New Year prison escapees to nine

Picture taken on December 28, 2017 shows the Justizvollzugsanstalt (JVA) Ploetzensee prison in Berlin. — AFP picBERLIN, Jan 3 — Berlin authorities faced a firestorm of criticism yesterday after nine people escaped a city prison in successive walkouts and jailbreaks over the past week.

Tabloid-style Bild daily labelled the security lapses “incomprehensible”, city-state politicians urged local justice chief Dirk Behrendt to step down, and Twitter users mocked the penal facility’s “open door” policy.

Behrendt acknowledged yesterday that two other inmates had escaped at the weekend, news agency DPA reported, which put the number of escapees still on the run at seven.

The first group escape saw four inmates aged 27 to 38 flee last Thursday from the Ploetzensee jail facility, now widely dubbed the capital’s “scandal prison”.

The convicts doing time for theft, extortion and aggravated assault were able to use an angle grinder and a huge hammer from their prison workshop to break out through a ventilation shaft before slipping underneath a fence to freedom.

A perimeter surveillance camera captured their escape, but wardens did not view the footage in real time and took 41 minutes to sound the alarm.

On Friday it emerged during a head-count that a fifth prisoner, aged 30, had failed to return from day release on Thursday.

And on Monday morning, New Year’s Day, it was learnt that two more prisoners had slipped out overnight through a cell window, with one recaptured by police later that day.

The pair had been held under an open-prison policy that allows detainees to go to work during the day but obliges them to spend nights behind bars.

“They could have left the prison the next morning by simply walking out through the front door,” a Berlin city administration spokesman told DPA.

It was not clear yesterday whether the two further men who escaped at the weekend failed to return from day release or broke out of the prison itself.

Conservative opposition lawmaker Burkard Dregger attacked the “dilettante” approach and called for Behrendt’s resignation.

Behrendt tweeted yesterday that one of the initial four escapees had just turned himself in, accompanied by a lawyer, and added that he would “now be transferred to a higher-security prison”.

“Today I have put together a commission of internal and external experts to analyse weak points and clear them up,” he later added. — AFP</s>Two further prisoners have escaped from the same central Berlin whence five inmates broke out on New Year’s Eve using a power tool. Critics say the once-feared jail is now an “open house.”

Justice authorities said late on Monday that two inmates – identified by Bild as Saldiray D., 44 and Domenique B., 21 – had made it out of the Ploetzensee prison in Berlin. The revelation came after the prison guard found that the two men were missing during an evening roll call.

The escapees managed to get into a neighboring cell overnight, and then broke free by cutting the window grid. The alarm was sounded more than half an hour after it emerged that the prisoners had fled Ploetzensee, but to no avail. One of the escapees later returned to the prison.

Just two days previously, five Ploetzensee prisoners escaped. Four managed to break through a wall through skillful use of an angle grinder. According to justice authorities, the quartet had reported as usual for morning duties along with other inmates at the prison’s car workshop under the oversight of three guards. The escapees then entered a heating room – usually kept locked – and managed to crush a reinforced concrete post in a ventilation gap with a hammer. The four – aged between 27 and 38 years and serving jail terms for theft, bodily harm and extortion – then severed metal rods using an electric-powered angle grinder, according to Deutsche Welle.

Ironically, their escape was going on under the watchful eye of CCTV cameras which filmed the prison break for well over three minutes, according to the DPA news agency. Miraculously enough, they went unnoticed in the prison’s control room. Later in the day, it emerged that another prisoner had not reported for roll-call, thus raising the total number of escapees to five.

Multiple jailbreaks prompted some politicians to voice unease over the situation at Ploetzensee prison. Marcel Luthe, a Free Democratic Party (FDP) MP in charge of domestic affairs said the prison turned into “a house of open doors,” according to Spiegel. He demanded that Dirk Behrendt, Berlin’s justice senator, step down over the incidents.

Some media reports say appalling security lapses have become commonplace at Ploetzensee. Andre G., who did time there until 2015, told Bild: “It’s so easy to escape from there. I’m surprised that more people haven’t made a break for it.”

He said the prison is so loosely guarded that almost anything can be smuggled from workshops into cells, with tools lying all over the place. “Everyone has mobile phones there,” he said. “I would simply tell the security guard in the workshop that I need to go to the bathroom and then I could talk in peace for half an hour.”

Andre G., who himself considered escape, added: “No one cares. The guards are mostly in their rooms playing with their mobile phones. You can easily distract them.”

Roughly 360 prisoners are serving terms in the jail, which was built at the end of 19th century and became notorious under the Nazis. After Hitler seized power 3,000 people were executed there – by the noose or the guillotine – including prominent members of the anti-fascist resistance movement.</s>Berlin prison hit by three escapes in one week

Berlin authorities came under fire today after a single city prison was hit by three jailbreaks or walk-outs in a week. — AFP picBERLIN, Jan 2 — Berlin authorities came under fire today after a single city prison was hit by three jailbreaks or walk-outs in a week, with five inmates still on the run.

Tabloid-style Bild daily labelled the security lapses “incomprehensible”, city-state politicians urged the justice minister to step down, and Twitter users mocked the penal facility’s “open door” policy.

The first group escape saw four inmates aged 27 to 38 flee last Thursday from the Ploetzensee jail facility, now widely dubbed the capital’s “scandal prison”.

The convicts doing time for theft, extortion and aggravated assault were able to use an angle grinder and a huge hammer from their prison workshop to break out through a ventilation shaft before slipping underneath a fence to freedom.

A perimeter surveillance camera captured their escape, but wardens did not view the footage in real time and took 41 minutes to sound the alarm.

On Friday it emerged during a head-count that a fifth prisoner, aged 30, had failed to return from day release on Thursday.

And yesterday morning, New Year’s Day, it was learnt that two more prisoners had slipped out overnight through a cell window, with one however reporting back hours later.

The pair had been held under an open-prison policy that allows detainees to go to work during the day but obliges them to spend nights behind bars.

“They could have left the prison the next morning by simply walking out through the front door,” a Berlin city administration spokesman told national news agency DPA.

Conservative opposition lawmaker Burkard Dregger attacked the “dilettante” approach of Berlin’s justice minister Dirk Behrendt and called for his resignation.

Behrendt tweeted later today that one of the initial four escapees had just turned himself in, accompanied by a lawyer, and added that he would “now be transferred to a higher-security prison”. — AFP</s>Berlin prison hit by three escapes in one week

Berlin authorities came under fire Tuesday after a single city prison was hit by three jailbreaks or walk-outs in a week, with five inmates still on the run.

Tabloid-style Bild daily labelled the security lapses “incomprehensible”, city-state politicians urged the justice minister to step down, and Twitter users mocked the penal facility’s “open door” policy.

The first group escape saw four inmates aged 27 to 38 flee last Thursday from the Ploetzensee jail facility, now widely dubbed the capital’s “scandal prison”.

The convicts doing time for theft, extortion and aggravated assault were able to use an angle grinder and a huge hammer from their prison workshop to break out through a ventilation shaft before slipping underneath a fence to freedom.

A perimeter surveillance camera captured their escape, but wardens did not view the footage in real time and took 41 minutes to sound the alarm.

On Friday it emerged during a head-count that a fifth prisoner, aged 30, had failed to return from day release on Thursday.

And on Monday morning, New Year’s Day, it was learnt that two more prisoners had slipped out overnight through a cell window, with one however reporting back hours later.

The pair had been held under an open-prison policy that allows detainees to go to work during the day but obliges them to spend nights behind bars.

“They could have left the prison the next morning by simply walking out through the front door,” a Berlin city administration spokesman told national news agency DPA.

Conservative opposition lawmaker Burkard Dregger attacked the “dilettante” approach of Berlin’s justice minister Dirk Behrendt and called for his resignation.

Behrendt tweeted later Tuesday that one of the initial four escapees had just turned himself in, accompanied by a lawyer, and added that he would “now be transferred to a higher-security prison”.

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This post was syndicated from The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper – Nigeria and World News. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>Berlin prison hit by three escapes in one week

Berlin authorities came under fire Tuesday after a single city prison was hit by three jailbreaks or walk-outs in a week, with five inmates still on the run.

The first group escape saw four inmates aged 27 to 38 flee last Thursday from the Ploetzensee jail facility, now widely dubbed the capital's "scandal prison".

The convicts doing time for theft, extortion and aggravated assault were able to use an angle grinder and a huge hammer from their prison workshop to break out through a ventilation shaft before slipping underneath a fence to freedom.

A perimeter surveillance camera captured their escape, but wardens did not view the footage in real time and took 41 minutes to sound the alarm.

On Friday it emerged during a head-count that a fifth prisoner, aged 30, had failed to return from day release on Thursday.

And on Monday morning, New Year's Day, it was learnt that two more prisoners had slipped out overnight through a cell window, with one however reporting back hours later.

The pair had been held under an open-prison policy that allows detainees to go to work during the day but obliges them to spend nights behind bars.

"They could have left the prison the next morning by simply walking out through the front door," a Berlin city administration spokesman told national news agency DPA.

Conservative opposition lawmaker Burkard Dregger attacked the "dilettante" approach of Berlin's justice minister Dirk Behrendt and called for his resignation.

Behrendt tweeted later Tuesday that one of the initial four escapees had just turned himself in, accompanied by a lawyer, and added that he would "now be transferred to a higher-security prison".
Nine prisoners have escaped from a Berlin, Germany prison over the last five days, with two escaping today.