Federal Constitutional Court
Low wages for prisoners are unconstitutional
View of the building of the Federal Constitutional Court. photo
© Uli Deck/dpa
1.37 euros an hour: behind bars this is possible in some places. But does this really serve to rehabilitate prisoners? The highest German court has a clear opinion on this.
Hourly wages of two euros or less for prisoners are unconstitutional. On Tuesday, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in favor of two working prisoners from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia who had complained about the amount of their remuneration. The federal states must regulate the respective laws by the end of June 2025 at the latest, as the chairwoman of the second senate, Doris König, said in Karlsruhe. However, the federal states are not obliged to create a retrospective remuneration regulation.
The federal states regulate such questions of the penal system themselves. In most of them, there is an obligation to work for convicts. It is intended to help with resocialization so that prisoners can gradually be reintegrated into society. Therefore, there is no minimum wage for those affected. According to the information, they earned between 1.37 euros and 2.30 euros per hour, depending on their qualifications.
The constitutional court developed the requirement for resocialization with recourse to human dignity and the principle of the welfare state, said König, who is also the vice-president of the highest German court. The legislators would have to develop a coherent and consistent concept for this.
Fair credit required
If work is intended as a treatment measure, it must be given appropriate recognition, König explained. “This does not have to be granted in money alone, but can also consist of a monetary and a non-monetary component.” This means, for example, so-called leave days, which can also be saved for an earlier dismissal.
How much payment satisfies constitutional requirements depends primarily on the intended purposes in the rehabilitation concept, said König. It should actually be possible to achieve this. “In other words, given the low wages of prison labor, achieving the goals set by law must not be unrealistic.” It must also be taken into account how the prisoners themselves perceive the remuneration, said König. Because the feeling of not being valued enough in your job can have a negative impact on rehabilitation.
The Senate found that the resocialization concepts in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia were not conclusive and free of contradictions. He declared the rules unconstitutional.
It is not the job of the court to specify a specific remuneration model, emphasized König. In the case of a new regulation, the legislature could also withhold part of the wages for certain purposes or allow the prisoners to share in the costs of the prison – for example through a contribution to the costs of detention or a flat rate for electricity costs.
The Karlsruhe constitutional judges had already ruled on the amount of prisoner remuneration. In 1998 they complained that it was too low. After that, the calculation basis was raised from five to nine percent of the average salary of all those with statutory pension insurance.