ABSTRACT
The competence to regulate prison and probation issues is shared by the Federal parliament of Germany and the parliaments of its 16 federal states (so-called Länder). The overall constitutional aim of resettlement is the “social reintegration” of ex-prisoners. The Länder pursue different approaches in how they try to accomplish this aim. Most of the Länder have improved the cooperation of prison and probation services. In some of the Länder there have been structural reorganizations of the prison and probation services to follow this aim. Other Länder focus on support for the integration into the labour market. In most of the Länder justice and social services agencies signed cooperation contracts for the improvement of prisoner resettlement. While certain concerns about a schematic implementation of the RNR-model play a role in ongoing discussions, the overall approach of resettlement seems to stay focused on classical individual social work.
