More people in Berlin serve prison sentence instead of fines - high increase in the first half of 2023

More people in Berlin serve prison sentence instead of fines - high increase in the first half of 2023

In the first half of 2023, more people are detained in Berlin to replace unpaid fines. As the Senate Justice Administration announced at the request of the dpa news agency, those sufferers suffered a substitute imprisonment in 1606. There were 2390 people throughout the previous year. In the two years before, it was only 1645 (2021) and 1418 (2020). Corona pandemic was the reason for this. During this time, the enforcement of compensation penalties was suspended for longer periods. The punishments were not enforceable until the past year.

Often people who have been used by public transport without a ticket and were convicted of scoring services. In the first half of 2023, according to justice administration, these were 317 cases. Throughout the year 2022 there were 414 people, in 2018 there were even 788 people. It has long been discussed to downgrade this crime (paragraph 265a of the Criminal Code) to an administrative offense. Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (independent) advocated downgrading, but also emphasized that the hoped -for judicial relief should not be an eyewash.

fines based on daily rates that are based on the income of the person concerned. The number of daily rates depends on the severity of the offense. A change in the law stipulates that the duration of the compensation sentence is halved. So far, the number of days that someone had to spend in prison for not paying a fine corresponded to the daily rates to which they were convicted. In the future it will only be half of the daily rates.

The prison days can be compensated for by non -profit work such as the maintenance of parks and green areas. Institutions that have concluded an agreement with the social services of the judiciary offer this option. This also saves costs for the judicial system. Last year, the total costs for an detention day amounted to 229.12 euros. In 2022, around 8360 people were sitting in the seven Berlin prisons.

The number of prisoners who serve a substitute imprisonment also increased in Brandenburg. In 2022 there were 150, 110 cases in the previous year and even 76. Before the pandemic, the numbers were similar to 2022, in 2019 and 121 in 2018. The comparatively low figures from 2020 and 2021 are due to Coronapandemie, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Source: Senate Justice Administration, Ministry of Justice Brandenburg, dpa