ZDF reportage series "Prison in Germany"
Prison in Germany: repeat offender Broadcasting on 24th of January 2025 at 06.55am on ZDFinfo
Life behind barbed wire. Some prisoners in German prisons spend more time in prison than in freedom. There are around 44,000 prisoners and those in preventive detention in Germany. Around one in three offenders is not in prison for the first time. How do the long-term prisoners fare? And why is it so difficult for them to return to a life free of punishment? Saarbrücken prison, the largest detention centre for male prisoners in the small state of Saarland. There are 140 underground prisoners, serious criminals and long-term prisoners there.
It is a prison that functions like a self-sufficient village - with a medical department, bakery, butcher's shop and canteen kitchen. There is also a wood workshop and a print shop that publishes its own prison newspaper. Sebastian R. has spent half his life in prison. The 43-year-old has spent a total of 23 years behind bars - in seven different prisons. He is currently being held in Saarbrücken prison. He has survived two heart attacks in prison and is currently trying to train as a painter. He receives regular medical treatment and is now hoping to finally get new teeth after his long drug addiction has left him with only a few teeth in his mouth.
He is also the prisoner with probably the longest sentence in Germany: the convicted murderer has been in prison for over 50 years. Meppen prison: Walter A. has been in preventive detention since 2015, a kind of retirement home for serious offenders who are too dangerous for the general public after serving their sentence. Instead of prison cells, they live in flats of around 20 square metres.
The majority of those in custody are sex offenders. In Meppen Prison in Lower Saxony, the ten men in preventive detention have all been there for several years: a small senior citizens' flat-sharing community for the most serious criminals, where the inmates bake cakes and tend to their orchids. ZDFinfo accompanies the long-term inmates in their everyday life in prison and talks to them about life in prison, remorse and the desire for a life in freedom. Murderers, fraudsters and petty criminals: around 44,000 men and women are behind bars in Germany. What is everyday life like in German prisons?
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