Thomas Galli

Thomas Galli (born 1973 ) is a German lawyer and author. He also studied psychology (with a Bachelor of Science degree) and criminology (with a Master of Arts degree). He is a critic of the current prison system .

Galli worked in the penal system from 2001, including in the Straubing correctional facility . In 2013 he became head of the Zeithain correctional facility , and in 2015 he was also head of the Torgau correctional facility for over 6 months . Galli was a member of the advisory board of netzwerkB . Galli has been working as a lawyer in a law firm in Augsburg since October 2016 .

Criticism of the prison system

Galli developed increasingly doubts about the prison system and finally resigned his management activities in 2016: "I do not want to be someone who advocates the abolition of prisons, but runs a prison myself." In May 2020, he declared that he would not complete the prison system want to abolish, but life in prisons is not humane. His 15 years of professional experience have taught him that the prison system encourages criminal tendencies. As early as 2016 he announced: “Prison makes people more dangerous.” He proposes that substitute custodial sentences be dropped and that the 10% of previous prisoners in Germany who have been sentenced to this sentence should be obliged to do community work. Those 40-50% of all prison inmates who have been sentenced to prison terms for property crimes should be given the opportunity to pay off their debts through regular employment outside the prison, as they would otherwise do this as inmates in prison with a 13-euro daily wage job can not.

Galli also proposes a model similar to restorative justice , in which the offender-victim balance would be the focus. While the court would continue to rule on guilt / innocence, according to its proposal, a committee consisting of social workers, pastors, psychologists, citizens, the perpetrator and the victim (if willing) should determine the appropriate punishment or, if necessary, reparation. Those convicted, from whom the general public had to be protected, should continue to be housed in an enclosed area, where they should, however, live more or less independently.

Book publications

• The severity of the guilt. 2016. ISBN 978-3360013071
• The danger of the perpetrator. 2017. ISBN 978-3360013187
• Locked up. Why prisons are no use to anyone. 2020. ISBN 978-3896842794

Web links

• Thomas Galli's website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lawyers Thomas Galli and Helmut Riedl, Augsburg
2. ↑ I don't want to be someone who advocates the abolition of prisons, but who runs a prison myself. | TP press agency. Retrieved on May 27, 2020 (German). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Beate Lakotta, DER SPIEGEL: "Anyone who kills their wife after 30 years of marriage is usually harmless to the general public." - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama. Retrieved May 27, 2020 . 
4. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .