A retired Austrian prison officer has claimed that Muslim gangs now control the prison black market and that female officers are facing a worsening climate of intimidation behind bars.
Sabine K., who worked in prisons in Vienna and Lower Austria before taking early retirement due to illness last year, told Exxpress that Austria’s prison system had changed dramatically during her career, particularly for women working on the wings.
“All trade and bartering is firmly in Muslim hands; you might still get toilet roll from an Austrian,” she said. “Muslim gangs have divided up everything that’s profitable and criminal.”
The long-serving officer said the shift was accompanied by a sharp deterioration in security and respect for female staff. She said that when she first entered the prison service in Vienna after previously working in childcare, conditions were largely manageable.
“It was only with the increase in Chechen inmates that serious problems with disrespect and attacks against us female officers began,” she said. “I’m not talking about sexual assault, but insults, people throwing things on the floor in front of us, and contemptuous remarks and gestures directed at us women.”
She said the atmosphere in Vienna became progressively worse, prompting a move to Lower Austria, where the prison environment was far calmer than in the capital. She said conditions there were “worlds better” at first, with relatively few problems from inmates.
But she claimed that changed around 2017 when the number of inmates from Muslim backgrounds began rising rapidly following the migrant crisis two years prior.
“About two years after the borders opened, we were literally overrun, and that continued until the end of my time there,” she said.
Sabine acknowledged that Austrian inmates could also behave badly, but said the level of hostility toward officers had reached a different intensity. “Plenty of Austrian inmates have bad manners too, but we were never spat on, insulted, or threatened to this extent,” she said.
She said the security situation had become so severe that female officers could no longer carry out duties that had once been routine, including taking groups of inmates to the prison supermarket. That practice, she said, is now forbidden for security reasons.
“Nothing more can be done; the train has left the station, and it will only get worse,” she said.
“Our officers are under immense pressure, massively outnumbered, and facing a horde of men just waiting for the slightest mistake to harm them,” she said.
