ABSTRACT
In line with the objective of resocialization, the prisoner should at least be freely employed outside the prison towards the end of his term of imprisonment. Before 1976, prison labour was given a clear priority as a means of rehabilitation and of keeping order in prisons. Reducing prisoners to objects under the control of private persons is therefore not acceptable. This means that the privatization of prisons, which is becoming more and more significant in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and England, would be narrowly restricted, if it were to be introduced in Germany. Figures for the various kinds of relaxations of the prison regime for the new federal states in the former East Germany have been available only since 1992. In contrast to the figures of the states of the former West Germany, the practice in the East was significantly more restrictive in 1995.
