Draft by the Federal Ministry of Justice: Buschmann wants to halve the substitute prison sentence

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Federal Justice Minister Buschmann on June 29, 2022

Photo: MICHELE TANTUSSI / REUTERS

The measure would probably relieve the prisons significantly: Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) wants to reform the sanction law and in particular revise the system of substitute imprisonment.

The substitute custodial sentence can be imposed if the convicted person cannot or does not want to pay a fine.

Fines are imposed in daily rates;

A daily rate corresponds to the amount that a perpetrator has at his or her disposal in terms of net income per day.

In the case of a substitute custodial sentence, a daily rate of any amount as a fine is equated to one day's imprisonment.

Buschmann now wants to change that one day of imprisonment should no longer correspond to one but two daily rates.

The time in prison would thus be halved.

The draft of the Federal Ministry of Justice is now going to the other departments of the Federal Government for approval.

The substitute custodial sentence is mainly known because of its relatively frequent use by convicted fare dodgers.

About a third of fines leading to jail for non-payment are for petty theft or fraud.

Almost a quarter of the cases involve fare dodgers.

A decision as to whether driving without a valid ticket may soon be downgraded from a criminal offense to an administrative offense is not yet to be made as part of the planned reform.

From coalition circles it is still said that this is still being examined.

A place in a prison costs 119 euros – per day

The system of substitute imprisonment has been controversial for a long time - critics see poor people in particular as disadvantaged.

The ministry's draft states that "real resocialization" cannot usually be achieved with the alternative prison sentence.

The implementation also causes “considerable costs” for the federal states.

According to calculations by his ministry in 2019, an occupied penal place cost around 119 euros per day on average across Germany, if the construction costs for the prison are not included.

In order to avoid substitute imprisonment as far as possible, the Federal Minister of Justice wants the enforcement authority to be obliged to inform convicts in good time if they can be permitted to avert substitute custody through community service.

In any case, this information should be given in a form that ensures that a person who does not speak German well understands it.

Reform also includes tightening

The draft also contains other planned changes in other areas.

Among other things, the catalog of reasons to be taken into account when sentencing is to be supplemented by “gender-specific” and “against sexual orientation” motives.

This involves hate crimes against people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Severe punishment should also result if a man puts his partner or ex-partner under pressure or does violence to her due to patriarchal patterns of thought.

In terms of the draft reform, this would be the case, for example, if a man denied his daughter, sister or ex-wife the right to freely choose their life partner.

In 2020, 359 women nationwide were victims of a homicide in a partnership, with the statistics here counting attempted and completed acts.

139 women died that year as a result of so-called intimate partner violence.

Judges should also be given more leeway when it comes to instructions that can be issued in the sense of a successful rehabilitation of the perpetrator: for example, in the context of a suspended sentence on probation, a warning with a reservation of punishment or a temporary refraining from prosecution.

This may mean directing the person to do community service or to seek therapy.

Implementation in spring at the earliest

Buschmann, on the other hand, wants to be more strict about the requirements for placement in a rehabilitation center.

The aim of the planned changes here is to concentrate the limited capacities on those addicts who actually need treatment in such a facility.

In order to achieve this in the future, the addiction, which is a prerequisite for such accommodation, should be defined more clearly than has been the case up to now.

If the draft is approved by the cabinet this fall, the reform could come into force next spring – provided the Bundestag and Bundesrat agree.

fek/AFP/dpa