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Germany

Capital city — Berlin

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Panorama

Contact with the outside world

Visitation rights

All prisoners have the right to receive visits

yes

Prisoners are generally entitled to two hours of monthly visits. This time may be spread over several visits. The maximum number is four 30-minute visits per month.

Prisoners must submit a request to the prison authorities for each visit. It is possible to schedule two visits in advance.
Defendants obtain their visitation permits from the prosecutor or judge.
Convicted prisoners obtain their permits from the prison management.
The visitor must present a valid identity card or passport. Asylum-seekers must present a valid residence permit.

Visit permits are granted

within a week

People eligible to visit

anyone

For security reasons, conversations can be monitored. The presence of a sworn interpreter is required if the prisoner and visitor do not speak German. The visit takes place under supervision. The number of visits with an interpreter is limited to two per month. A maximum of two people are allowed to visit a prisoner together.

Prisoners and visitors can meet without physical barriers

yes

A screen can separate prisoners and visitors as an exception.

Prisoners are allowed to receive visits from their children or minor relatives

yes, and special arrangements are provided

Communal spaces are organised for visits from members of the same family. Rooms for more privacy can also be reserved.

  • Prisons in North Rhine-Westphalia set up activities for prisoners to keep in touch with their children. A list of these activities provided by the Ministry of Justice to a Green parliamentary group included father-child days, trainings, story recordings on CD, egg hunts etc.. After the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, these activities had become rarer and the maintenance of links more difficult. Skype visits were also still available.

    i
    25/01/2022
    / Süddeutsche Zeitung

Conjugal visits are allowed

yes

Required conditions for conjugal visits

lasting emotional relationship

Visitors are not allowed to bring objects nor food. They can buy snacks, non-alcoholic drinks and cigarettes in vending machines in the waiting area of the visitation room.

Existing legislation and policies provide for the placement of prisoners near their relatives. They may, upon request, be transferred to a prison to maintain family ties.

Correspondence

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail

yes

Mail exchanged is subject to control

yes

Mail can be only be opened to check that it does not contain any prohibited objects.

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail in sealed envelopes

yes

Letters in sealed envelopes are sent in envelopes marked ‘Personal and Confidential’. Prison staff are not allowed to open them. They may be X-rayed to ensure that no prohibited items are concealed.

Staff render these envelopes unusable after use.

Letters to lawyers or the Advisory Board (Anstaltsbeirat) are confidential.

Prisoners are allowed to receive parcels

yes, under certain conditions

All parcels must be authorised by the prison director. A parcel must not contain food, personal care products or items prohibited by the regulations. The Federal Prison Act allows parcels to be received three times a year. This provision is not retained in the prison laws of all states. It is not possible to receive parcels in Berlin.

E-mail exchange is possible

no

A project aiming to give access to emails is being worked on in Berlin.

Phone calls

Prisoners are allowed to make external phone calls

yes

  • In Bavarian correctional facilities, telephone calls are not authorised except “in case of emergency”, once a month and by request. “Replacement” telephone calls were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, prisoners have been able to make calls twice a month for 20 minutes.

    i
    2022
    / National Agency for the Prevention of Torture (Nationale Stelle zur Verhütung von Folter), "Annual Report 2021" , p. 89 (in German)

Prisoners are allowed to call

anyone

The phones are located

in the corridors

In Heidering Prison (Brandenburg), the phones are located in the cells.

  • Prisoners in Hamburg were given access to telephones in their cells. This measure had already been in place in other prisons in the country. Inmates would only have access to about 30 numbers that would have been checked and approved by the administration of the prison they are in to limit fraudulent use. This measure relieved both the inmates, who could have more contact with their loved ones, and the prison administrations, which could have more control over outside contacts and see the tensions associated with access to free phones reduced.

    i
    02/04/2022
    / Taz

The cost of phone calls is in line with market prices

yes

According to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, call costs from a prison should be as close as possible to those made outside of prison.

Many prisons delay cutting call costs. In December 2018, the GG-BO started a national campaign to demand Telio to provide cheaper phone access in prison.

Phones calls are wire tapped

yes

Phone calls can be wire tapped. The prison administration must consider this measure to maintain public security.

The use of cell phones is authorised

no

Some prisons consider using phone jammers to prevent cell phone usage.

Prisoners have access to video calls with external contacts

in some prisons

Celle prison offers prisoners, ”who are unable due to long distance, health or financial reasons to have visits, to receive calls via a Voice-over-the-Internet-Protocol service”.1

  1. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), “Report to the German Government on the visit carried out from 25 November to 7 December 2015”, 1 June 2017, p.33. ↩