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Germany

Capital city — Berlin

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Country-profile

Latest updates

The law provides for a sentence adjustment system

yes

  • Placing prisoners under court orders has been suspended on a federal level due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Certain regions have proceeded to release inmates who had been placed under court order.

    i
    19/03/2020
    / www.tagesschau.de

  • Hamburg prison released 40 inmates due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in Berlin and Brandenburg 18 people were released for the same reason. It was decided that in Berlin those who had been sentenced to jail terms of less than three years would not be sent to prison until the summer. In Hesse, any individual eligible for an open prison would not be jailed.

    i
    19/03/2020
    / www.tagesschau.de

  • The Justice minister planned to release 1,000 prisoners in North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populous region of Germany. The vacated cells were to be used as quarantine facilities. This measure was to concern only inmates with short jail terms.

    i
    2020
    / Reuters

All prisoners have the right to receive visits

yes

Prisoners are generally entitled to two hours of monthly visits. This time may be spread over several visits. The maximum number is four 30-minute visits per month.

  • Due to Covid-19, visits have been banned in most regions. They are permitted in some regions, notably in Hamburg, with a screen and with special authoriation. Only lawyers are allowed to carry on meeting their clients.

    i
    19/03/2020
    / https://www.tagesschau.de

Prisoners are allowed to make external phone calls

yes

  • Prepaid mobile telephones have been offered to inmates in Hamburg prison for 20 euros. SIM cards and telephone credit must be purchased by family members outside the prison. The telephones will be returned when the health crisis is over. Tablet computers intended for video calls have been made available to inmates in a prison in North-Rhine Westphalia for 30 minutes a week. Slots for telephone calls have been extended from 35 minutes a week to 10 minutes a day.

    i
    05/06/2020
    / Prison Observatory

All prisoners are allowed to work

no

Prisoners in solitary confinement cannot work. There are not enough jobs available. Around 30% of the prison population cannot access work.

  • Workshops have been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and inmates are no longer paid a wage. The regions of Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin are the only ones which provide any financial compensation. Two organisations which lobby for prisoners’ rights have stressed the importance of work in the rehabilitation process.

    i
    26/05/2020
    / bag-s.de

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  • The Sicherungsverwahrte from Rosdorf prison (Göttingen) struggle to access therapy centres for their reintegration. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, the aim of the special detention scheme for the Sicherungsverwahrte must be the reintegration of prisoners. A prisoner condemns the lack of coherence on the part of the prison administration in this regard.

    See the column, “Persons sentenced to long-term imprisonment” for more info on Sicherungsverwahrte.

    i
    26/06/2019
    / TAZ

The prison service allows access to Internet

in some states

Internet use in prison is debated. Pilot projects are run to allow prisoners to access employment agencies and one probation assistance website. This is the case in the state of Thuringia. All other websites are blocked.

  • The Sicherungsverwahrte from Rosdorf prison (Göttingen) are rallying for provision of internet access. They have access to seven websites. These sites are censored.

    i
    26/06/2019
    / TAZ

Prisoners have access to a television

yes, rented

  • The Sicherungsverwahrte from Rosdorf prison (Göttingen) lost the right to keep pornographic books and DVDs in September 2017. They can no longer record TV programmes. They can watch repeat broadcast for three days.

    See “Persons sentenced to long-term imprisonment” column for more info on Sicherungsverwahrte.

    i
    26/06/2019
    / TAZ

A maximum of 21 days of leave is granted per year after serving six months in prison. Prisoners convicted for life sentences should serve ten years of their term before requesting release on parole.

  • The Sicherungsverwahrte (Prisoners in safe custody) from Rosdorf prison (Göttingen) told the Knast-Soligruppe Göttigen support group about some modifications of the procedures for exit permits. The duration of their outings was reduced in September 2017, from 8 to 2.5 hours a month. The Ministry of Justice of Basse-Saxe said in reply that exit permits can be for a duration of 2 to 10 hours a month, as established by the prison authority.

    See the column, “Persons sentenced to long-term imprisonment” for more info on Sicherungsverwahrte.

    i
    26/06/2019
    / TAZ

Prisoners are paid for their work

yes

More than half the salary is deposited in a savings account. This aims to facilitate life after release. Where appropriate, one part is intended for the civil parties. The prisoner is free to have the remainder.

  • Prisoners from Rosdorf prison (Göttingen) contacted the Knast-Soligruppe Göttigen support group by mail. They spoke out about their working conditions, which according to them are unfavourable. Prisoners receive the main part of their salary upon release. The cash allocated to the Sicherungsverwahrte is replaced by vouchers.

    See the column “Persons sentenced to long-term imprisonment” for more info on Sicherungsverwahrte.

    i
    26/06/2019
    / TAZ

The law states that prisoners suffering from addictions may be placed in detoxification centres.

Six states provide comprehensive treatments for addictions in some prisons1. All prisons are obliged to offer methadone substitution treatment. It is administered by prison staff under the supervision of medical staff and social workers.

Most patients receive a single detoxification course with substitution treatment. Only a minority of prisoners with addictions access treatment for more than six months.

  1. Lana Osment, “The Complexity of Rehabilitation in Open and Closed Prison Setting”, Lund University, 2018, p. 14. ↩

  • Marlene Mortler, Federal Commissioner for Drug Control, laments the fact that prisoners do not always have access to methadone, an opiate substitution treatment. Half of the Bavarian prisons do not provide treatment for heroin addiction. The difficulty in accessing substitution treatment promotes the black market for drugs in prison and increases the risk of infections from used syringes.

    In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights described the refusal to provide substitution treatment to a dependent prisoner, as “inhuman treatment”.

    i
    05/2019
    / Süddeutsche Zeitung

There are 29 juvenile detention centres in the 16 states, which account for 6,500 prison places. In 2013, young adults (between 18 and 24 years old) represented 90.6% of the population of these facilities while minors (14 to 18 years old) represented 9.4%. These facilities for minors are not overpopulated. 1

  1. Frieder Dünkel, “Juvenile Justice, Sentencing and Youth Imprisonment in Germany”, University of Greifswald, 2018. ↩

  • The rate of occupancy in juvenile facilities is decreasing. The Herford Juvenile Detention Centre has 200 prisoners and 355 spaces. Two of the prison units were closed in 2018.

    Juvenile delinquency decreased by 50% between 2007 and 2015. For Jens Waldmann, director of the detention centre, the decrease in juvenile delinquency is correlated with the decrease in youth unemployment

    i
    2018
    / Radio Television Suisse