The Bavarian Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) likes to post photos on Instagram, he is internet savvy, promotes cyber investigations, advertises high-tech, digital, progress. It sounds all the more like a slightly absurd farce that his Bavarian judiciary now sees itself unable to convert relatively simple software in time to implement a legislative reform decided by the Bundestag. IT is paralyzed – and the result is that thousands of people will have to stay in prison longer than the legislature actually considers appropriate.
Every year around 50,000 people in Germany are put behind bars because they don’t pay a fine and can’t work it off – for example because of an illness. This “alternative imprisonment” usually lasts only a few weeks, but causes high costs. The Bundestag had actually decided in June to accommodate these people and only have them locked up for half as long in the future. Actually, the reform should come into force nationwide on October 1st. The Bundestag has now postponed the deadline by four months. To February 1, 2024.
The reason: The Free State of Bavaria has objected that it is not possible to convert the judiciary IT so quickly. Fast, that would mean in this case: from June to October. The task doesn’t actually seem all that complex. So far, the formula has been that ten daily rates of fine are converted into ten days in prison. In the future it should only be five days – just half. A group of federal states uses a judicial software, “web.sta”, for the calculation of sentences, which now has to be reprogrammed. Bavaria is in charge of this.
In Bavaria’s judiciary, people still like to work with moving boxes full of paper
The problem that IT changes in the judiciary are particularly slow is not entirely new. Munich criminal defense lawyer Johanna Braun can tell you about it, for example about “BeA”, the “special electronic lawyer’s mailbox”, an encrypted mail system that was introduced in 2018, only to be taken off the market immediately – due to technical problems. Braun is on the board of the Bavarian Criminal Defense Initiative. “In Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, you can now view files digitally,” she says. “The download link works great.” In Bavaria, “moving boxes would continue to be sent cheerfully,” filled with paper, with a CD-ROM in between.
But when things go so far that people have to stay in prison longer, that’s extraordinary. In the Justification for the reform of the substitute imprisonment you can now read about the tasks that are causing Bayern so much headache. You have to coordinate between the federal states and hire an IT service provider. You also have to test the new software. At the same time, “adjustments in the associated enforcement documentation” are necessary, but not so easy. “A temporary switch to a manual correction” is also not possible, the ministry also announced when asked by the SZ.
The house of Georg Eisenreich, today’s justice and former digital minister in the Söder cabinet, had initially demanded an even longer delay from the federal government in order to be able to cope with these IT tasks. Namely six months. Four is a compromise.