Prisoner

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Prisoners are individuals who have a prison - or imprisonment for a legally sanctioned offense in a prison are serving.

Different types of detention

The imprisonment due to a court-ordered imprisonment is in German criminal law a measure of justice and with criminal law, criminal procedure or Strafvollzugsrecht regulated. It is to be distinguished from other types of deprivation of liberty , which include order detention (from one day), compulsory detention and pre- trial detention (“ pre- trial detention”), as well as detention for extradition and detention . They generally have a limited time frame.

Sometimes one ends conviction to a fine also a prison sentence if the convicted person is unable to pay. In this case one speaks of a "substitute custodial sentence".

In constitutional countries, prisons are subject to state-regulated supervision; Young people and “mentally abnormal lawbreakers” (Austria and Lichtenstein) are detained in special institutions, in many cases female prisoners as well. Mentally ill offenders, sometimes even those with debt inability to § 20 of the Criminal Code, are in danger of repetition in Germany in forensic detained. Preventive courts to protect the public from dangerous offenders a preventive detention in the judgment and for a negative prognosis improvement during detention in individual cases also order afterwards.

Rights and obligations

Prisoners are subject to a restriction of their basic rights , such as B. Art. 5 para. 1 sentence 3 GG (restriction of freedom of the press).

Furthermore, they have certain rights and obligations during execution ; the latter may exist. a. behaving in accordance with the house rules and performing the assigned work (see section "Work and offers in prisons")

Their rights include in liberal authored countries including the possibility of correspondence and of temporary visits , the right to meet the physical basic needs , to daily exercise , etc. outdoors, and usually also a right to appeal . For minimum regulations, see also human rights .

Towards the end of the detention there is usually the possibility of a day or longer leave from detention ( release ) in order to look for an apartment or a job. During this time - and after their release - they usually have a probation officer by their side.

Work and offers in prisons

In Germany, prisoners are obliged to work under Section 41 of the Prison Act. However, because of this work, they have not yet been insured in the statutory pension insurance. Because this problem is hardly publicly aware of and only rarely taken up by the media, the News Enlightenment Initiative put it at the top of the most neglected topics in 2012. In 2015, the Conference of Justice Ministers decided to instruct the Prison Committee of the Länder to examine the principles and effects of including prisoners in the pension insurance and to present the result to the Ministerial Conference.

On March 27, 2015, the Association Council of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband adopted a position paper on the work and employment of prisoners on these issues. At the end of 2018, Rolf Rosenbrock from the Paritätischer Gesamtverband pointed out that the Justice Ministers' Conference in June 2018 had again recommended that prisoners be included in the pension scheme; his association welcomes this recommendation.

On February 19, 2019, the Bundestag parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen sent a small inquiry to the federal government on this subject .

In March 2020 the pension commission "Reliable intergenerational contract" presented its final report with numerous recommendations. The Federal Working Group for Criminal Assistance e. V. points out that "the situation of people released from prison is completely ignored. Older people who have worked while in prison continue to receive nothing. Despite the work they have done, they are not credited with any pension entitlements or a life of poverty in old age. "

For the work in prison or in external workplaces, prisoners have been entitled to a small amount of compensation , called pekulium in Switzerland, for around 150 years . In the German-speaking countries it is currently between 1.20 € (compensation level 1) and 2.10 € (compensation level 7) euros per hour. The end of 1920 it was, for example, increased significantly in Germany: prison -Gefangene now got one mark instead of the previous 20 Pfennig , other prisoners 1.50 marks instead of 30 cents.

What happens to prisoners' earnings in German penal institutions is laid down in the Penal Code: four sevenths are kept as bridging money for him until he is released, the rest is paid out as house money. In addition, since 2001, the prisoner has received non-monetary recognition of his work; If he works for two months in a row, he is credited with a so-called "day off". He can either spend this as cell leave or apply for leave from prison. If he does not use the days off, they will be credited to him when he is discharged - so he is released earlier.

The prisoners are entitled to basic medical care and, as a rule, some leisure activities , such as B. Sports. In most institutions, visits by specially trained prison chaplains are also planned.

A more recent development for the improvement of violent offenders is a kind of mediation with the victims , if they agree and the court considers this to be useful. It consists in establishing (expertly accompanied) contact with those involved , which is predominantly positive, especially with young people . It enables the victims to process what they have experienced in a more targeted manner and, on the other hand, enables the perpetrators to gain a clearer insight into their act and the consequences. There are also attempts to involve them in talk therapy and pastoral care (see e.g. Clemens Kleine in JVA Berlin).

In principle, a stay in prison and the time afterwards are more positive if the perpetrators are to be motivated to actively work on their own "improvement" and, if possible, to take responsibility for further prevention . So far, those affected have experienced this mainly as devaluation or pressure. Some branches of training in social pedagogy or probation assistance are beginning to counteract the fact that the frequent misunderstanding between social worker and perpetrator is not experienced as a (predominantly negative) assessment . From a psychological point of view, the good sides of the prisoner and their so-called resources must also be included in this area of ​​tension in social work in prison .

For leisure activities there is the possibility of ad hoc group formation - for example in the sporting or cultural area. So there are z. B. In various places theater projects with juvenile prisoners, some of which are led by renowned artists . Worth mentioning here is Dortmund , for example , where the freelance writer and director Ursula Krechel (* 1947 Trier, now Frankfurt) made a great contribution.

The (experience) world of the prisoners

This section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

If the (experience) world - and thus also everyday life - is divided into 3 phases by prisoners, the result is:

a) in the posting phase : ... through access;

  • The anonymity of the "pass"
  • The "depersonalization"
  • The loss of status
  • The loss of role
  • The difficulties in adapting to (institutional) standards (" prison language " and official language )
  • The uncertainty
  • The risk of suicide
  • The institutionalization, characterized by the regular daily routine
  • The loss of (work) quality

b) during the current sentence :

  • The impoverishment (also of the family)
  • The lack of independence
  • Daydreaming
  • The monotony of everyday life
  • The relationship fears
  • Dealing with the subculture
  • The alienation from the outside world
  • The change in the worldview
  • A (special) way of dealing with " guilt "
  • The outstanding "reparation"

c) during the discharge phase :

  • Many exaggerated resolutions
  • A disturbed self-assessment
  • Lots of fears about the future

Penal camp

Australia and Siberia

The British penal colonies in Australia counted the most prisoners , where in barely 100 years (until 1868 ) a total of 160,000 prisoners were exiled. At times there were more prisoners than settlers (see History of Australia ).

Most of the time when one thinks of the keyword “camp”, one thinks of the forced laborers or the many labor camps near the mines of Siberia . B. on the Kolyma and in the Tscherski Mountains were only dissolved around 1990. Also, political and war prisoners were moved there.

View from Robben Island to Cape Town

Prison islands

Since European seafaring broke away from the coasts of the continents, so-called penal colonies have been established on many islands . Well-known examples of such prison islands are - from east to west:

and many others.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Prisoner  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ No pension for working prisoners. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ TOP II.13 Inclusion of prisoners and persons in preventive detention in the statutory pension insurance. Resolution of the 86th Conference of Justice Ministers, 17./18. June 2015
  3. ↑ The exclusion from state security systems is an inadmissible double punishment of prisoners . In: Criminal Aid Information Service of the Federal Working Group for Criminal Assistance , Issue 2/2015, pp. 4–5.
  4. ^ Rolf Rosenbrock: Greetings at the opening of the prison days of action. In: Information service criminal assistance, issue 3/2018, p. 49
  5. ↑ Inclusion of prisoners and persons in preventive detention in the statutory pension insurance BT-Drs. 19/7887 of February 19, 2019
  6. ^ Generations contract.de - Your generation contract shop. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Clemens Kleine Tagesspiegel, February 18, 2005, accessed on November 3, 2013.