The Impact of Covid-19 on Prisons and Penal Policy in Germany

ABSTRACT

In Germany, the situation of prisons before the outbreak of the Covid-19-pandemic was quite relaxed as the prison population was in decline and overcrowding not a problem. However, there was a special problem with fine defaulters, who comprise about 10% of the daily adult German prison population. Short-term prisoners in general are a problem resulting in a large influx of possibly infected people. Since March 2020 all German Federal states stopped (or reduced) incarcerating fine defaulters and some states went further, not executing prison sentences of up to one or even up to three years. The prison population dropped from about 77 per 100,000 inhabitants to 67. Prison conditions, however, worsened because of restricted contacts of prisoners with the outside world. On the other side, access to internet communication was introduced in order to compensate the lockdown of personal visits and of prison leaves. Since June some of the restrictions were repealed, as the pandemic was under control and almost no infections were observed for prisoners. Visits and prison leaves gradually are allowed again in a limited way. Further crime policy considerations to abolish or reduce fine default and other short-term imprisonment are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Incarceration rates
• prisoner reentry
• prison experience
• prisons
• sentencing
• Covid-19
• Pandemic
• Alternatives to incarceration
• Early release mechanisms
• Prison reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See for the development of the German prison system Dünkel and Rössner (2001), Dünkel (2018).

2. The statistical data on the prison population and the distribution of inmates in comparison of the federal states are taken from Statistisches Bundesamt (Ed.). Rechtspflege. Bestand der Gefangenen und Verwahrten in den deutschen Justizvollzugsanstalten nach ihrer Unterbringung auf Haftplätzen des geschlossenen und offenen Vollzugs (monthly statistics on prisoners in closed and open prison facilities), https://www.destatis.de.

3. See world prison brief: http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php (last access: 16 August 2020).

4. See for the German development in comparison to other European jurisdictions Dünkel (2017).

5. The absolute numbers of sentenced prisoners were 42,195 at the end of March and 45,715 at the end of June 2020.

6. It does not mean that only low-risk offenders are granted to serve their sentence in open prisons. Also medium- and high-risk offenders – at least in the very last stages of the execution of prison sentences –, should have the right to be transferred to open prisons in order to alleviate the transition process from closed prisons to an open environment and the after-care situation, see for that Dünkel in Dünkel, Jesse, Pruin, & von der Wense (2016): 91 ff.

7. At the end of June 2020 the proportion of prisoners accommodated in open prisons for adults was 14.1% and in youth prisons 8.2%, which underlines the statement that the pandemic had no visible impact on the strategy of furthering the reentry of prisoners by a graduated release and the transfer to open prisons. However, further statistical analysis is needed on the question of differential effects and on which offender groups were preferably selected.

8. North Rhine-Westphalia in the response to a Parliamentary Inquiry declared that prisoners who served a fine default or prison sentence of up to 18 months that ended between 20 March and 31 July 2020 had been released by interrupting the execution of the sentence according to § 455a Criminal Procedure Act (for organizational reasons). In total 1,051 prisoners were released, which corresponds to 9.7% of the North Rhine-Westphalian prison population in March 2020, see Parliamentary printed matter, Landtags-Drucksache 17/3468 of 8 June 2020.

9. See for the legal requirements in Germany and in comparison to other European jurisdictions Dünkel (2015); Dünkel and Weber (2019).

10. The absolute numbers remained on this relatively high level also in April to June 2020 (498, 506, and 471), leaving open the question of a pandemic induced more favorable early release policy.

11. Unfortunately, Germany does not report the measures taken against Covid-19 infections and other changes in prison life during the pandemic to the internet-platform Europris, although the Federal Ministry of Justice is a member of Europris, see https://www.europris.org.