How Germany Does Prison

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/16/how-germany-does-prison

by Tomte • 11 years ago

56 41 11 years ago

After reading the article, I'm wondering: so, how Germany does prison?

Over the next several days, I’ll be keeping a tour diary for The Marshall Project and VICE, watching as they visit a series of facilities in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

This is an article about what the article will say once they write it. Premature journalism at its best.

dagw• 11 years ago

On the other hand stating your research method, intentions and any prior expectations before conduction your research is just good science and journalism shouldn't be an excuse to avoid rigor.

Tomte3• 11 years ago

There are five installments in this Series.

philippnagel• 11 years ago

And this: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/09/25/prison-without... seems to be the longer article scheduled for October.

coldtea• 11 years ago

This is an article about what the article will say once they write it. Premature journalism at its best.

Maybe you missed the whole "article series" thing? You can click on the tag to see all of the articles published thus far on this project:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/tag/how-germany-does-pris...

lordnacho• 11 years ago

Anecdotes from a Scandinavian country:

- When I was a kid someone "borrowed" a bulldozer and made a huge hole in the wall at a prison. A few guys escaped. But most of the rest didn't. They were having some sort of family day and didn't think it made sense to bolt.

- I was taught how to swim by a convict on release. He had a police officer with him each time, but she kept in the background. He was doing time for a violent offence, but one that reasonably did not pose a danger to the general public.

jules3• 11 years ago

I think the question to ask people who favor punishment prisons is this: prisoners get out of prison one day. If a prisoner was moving in the house next to yours as your neighbor, would you rather have a prisoner from a prison focused on humane treatment or from a prison focused on punishment?

alessioalex• 11 years ago

Spot on question, bravo!

pjc502• 11 years ago

prisoners get out of prison one day

Unfortunately the people who favour punishment prisons are likely to counter by saying that people should never get out of prison; or, if they do, they should be banned from living next to ''decent'' people (this is the effect of things like offender registry laws).

aianus• 11 years ago

The people who favor punishment prisons live in communities unaffordable to convicts and have likely never met one or ever expected to meet one.

geowwy• 11 years ago

You set it up as "punishment prisons" vs. "humane prisons".

I don't think anyone says prisons should be inhumane in order to punish criminals. The imprisonment is the punishment, not the treatment inside the prison.

mschuster91• 11 years ago

We Germans have our own issues though, it's not perfect. What is the prison system in the US, is the psychiatric system here. Once you get in its wheels, it takes really dedicated lawyers and sometimes even mass-media attention to get out. Just look at Gustl Mollath.

And our "justice" system suffers from massive, massive understaffing, just like the police. It's easy to "cut costs" there for politicians because there is no immediate negative effect, and by the time said effects hit, the politician responsible is not in office any more.

Tomte3• 11 years ago

Yes, the Mollath case was disgusting.

Politicians meddling with the justice system, because of a (partly misguided) public outrage.

As a result, Mollath got off.

Nutomic• 11 years ago

Are you saying he shouldn't have been released?

barrkel• 11 years ago

He was locked up for 6 years or so, right? What did he get away with doing?

tormeh• 11 years ago

I've never seen more police than in Berlin. In Norway I can go for months without seeing police. In Berlin they were everywhere with guns and body armor. So, yeah, not underfunded at all, as far as I can see.

FlorianOver• 11 years ago

Berlin is a special case. You can stay weeks in cologne without seeing one police woman/man.

DasIch2• 11 years ago

Berlin is a special case because there are a lot of places that require protection such as government buildings, embassies and synagogues. There is also a protest somewhere in Berlin on almost any given day. On top of that there is the criminal activity, drugs mostly, which means that the police raid places like Görlitzer Park pretty much daily.

In the rest of Germany there are cities you can easily spend months in without encountering a police officer.

mhd• 11 years ago

As far as I know, there are no truly federal prisons in Germany, so depending on whether you're in Mecklenburg-Pomerania or Bavaria, things might vary quite a bit (although stringent federal laws do apply).

germanier• 11 years ago

Up until 2006 prisons were completely regulated federally, even though they were run by the states. Since then, the states are in charge of prison laws, though they don't vary much.

Just as an example for one of they "major" differences: Most states still require TVs in common rooms but as many inmates have their own nowadays, some states made them optional. In Hamburg there is never a TV in a common room. Some states may require the inmates to pay for the electricity they use with their own appliances.

Most other differences are also on that level.

How Germany Does Prison

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