Prisons lack teachers for school-age convicted teenagers

Several Austrian prisons lack teachers or social educators for school-age teenage inmates, leaving some without adequate schooling or vocational training, ORF reported.

The Austrian Ombudsman’s Office said the problem also affects the forensic therapeutic centre where a 14-year-old girl is being held after receiving a final eight-year sentence for murdering a 64-year-old woman at Vienna’s Baumgarten cemetery. The girl should have access to teachers from the education directorate or teachers hired under contract, but there are currently no teachers at the facility.

The Ombudsman’s Office recently reviewed schooling and training opportunities for imprisoned teenagers. Gabriela Schwarz, the ombudswoman responsible for the prison system, said on Friday that some prisons had neither teachers nor social educators for school-age inmates during the previous school year. She questioned whether the situation had improved with the start of the new school year.

The review began after overcrowding at Münnichplatz prison in Vienna, which is intended for male inmates aged between 14 and 18. Because of a lack of space, some teenagers were transferred to other prisons, including those in Eisenstadt, Wiener Neustadt, Graz-Jakomini and Korneuburg.

Schwarz told the Austrian Press Agency that their schooling and training opportunities were sometimes disappointing. At the end of August, the Ombudsman’s Office warned the Justice Ministry that prisons in Eisenstadt, Feldkirch, Korneuburg, Krems and Wiener Neustadt lacked teachers or social educators despite regularly holding male teenagers.

During a public consultation day in May at the forensic therapeutic centre in Asten, the office encountered girls under 15 who were not receiving school lessons. Schwarz also said that no lessons were provided at Schwarzau prison in spring 2026, even though several girls were being held there.

The Justice Ministry said that care provided by social educators also fulfils the education obligation until the age of 18. However, it acknowledged that qualified teachers were the best option for suitable instruction. At Schwarzau, it said, officials were working on an arrangement with an external teacher hired under contract because of a long-term absence.

Schooling is not currently being considered for the convicted 14-year-old, who is reportedly in a psychological condition that makes questions about education irrelevant for the time being.