ABSTRACT
In Germany, the general situation in prisons before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was relaxed, insofar as the prison population was in decline and overcrowding not a problem. However, there was a problem with fine defaulters, who comprised about 10% of the daily adult German prison population. Regarding the pandemic, the influx of short-term prisoners caused problems because of a large number of possibly infected people. In March 2020, all German federal states therefore stopped (or reduced) incarcerating fine defaulters. Some states went further and stopped executing prison sentences of up to one or even up to three years. Between February 2020 and June 2020, the prison population declined from 77 per 100,000 inhabitants to 67. Prison conditions, however, worsened because of restricted contacts of prisoners with the outside world, although access to internet communication was introduced to compensate the severe restrictions of personal visits and of prison leave. From June 2020, some of these restrictions were repealed, as the pandemic seemed to be under control and few infections were reported for prisoners. While the situation has changed again with the second wave of the pandemic, the changes observed in the first wave revived penal policy discussions on the abolition or reduction of short-term imprisonment for fine defaults or other misdemeanours.
