Status: 12/18/2022 4:24 p.m
Berlin has Germany’s first prison with Internet access for inmates. The pilot project is intended to prepare for life after imprisonment. That is not undisputed.
What Berlin has achieved in the Lichtenberg women’s prison is “a milestone,” says Susanne Gerlach, head of the prison department in the Senate Department for Justice. The inmates now have Internet access in 70 cells. The inmates have a basic right to social rehabilitation, which results from the Basic Law and the Berlin state constitution, says Justice Senator Lena Kreck. “Resocialization means preparing for a life in freedom,” said the left-wing politician.
At first glance, the digital window to freedom seems a bit inconspicuous: A touchscreen and a cable remote control provide access to the Internet – at least partially. Because the “detention room media system” does not allow users to use social media such as Instagram and Facebook or video platforms such as YouTube. A general browser is also missing. Instead, all usable services are predefined and can be set individually for each inmate.
The Berlin “detention room media system” only allows limited access to the Internet.
Image: dpa
Internet “light” as a basic program
Internet access in the cell is therefore very limited and acts more like a kind of supervised surfing. In this way, the administration of justice wants to prevent inmates from obtaining security-related information or posting it in public forums from prison. In addition, communication can be monitored in individual cases when the prisoners write e-mails with the outside world. The administration of justice therefore has no security concerns.
Above all, access to the Internet should prepare you for “life outside”, make applications easier and broaden your horizons. The “permissible” homepages include news sites and, for example, the online library of the Central and State Library. In addition, users now have access to the digital application system of the judiciary, which is intended to reduce paper bureaucracy in the institutions. Smartphone games such as “Angry Birds” or the classics Sudoku and Solitaire are also allowed. All of this is free.
Paid additional offers
More complex functions are chargeable. Telephone, video chat, television, radio, e-mails, Office programs, computer games – prisoners only get all of this if they sign a contract with the company that installs the devices. Telio Communications GmbH won the 2021 tender. Prisoners pay the company either once for certain services or permanently in a subscription.
When asked about the exact prices, the administration was tight-lipped and gave only a few examples. TV access costs EUR 13.95 a month, landline calls cost three cents a minute and video telephony costs 20 cents a minute. Inmates cannot use a flat rate.
Internet for all prisoners – unnecessary luxury?
The pilot project in the women’s prison is said to have been just the beginning. By October 2023, all prisons in Berlin should be equipped with end devices – after a total of seven years of advance notice. System was in development since 2016. From the point of view of the three opposition parties in Berlin, that was a waste of time.
CDU, AfD and FDP unanimously criticize that the Senate is setting the wrong priorities. “This is a luxury project that we don’t think is necessary,” says Alexander Herrmann, the CDU’s legal policy spokesman. “Look at how many students in Berlin are without technical equipment. Better equipment in the prison system than the Berlin average? That can’t be conveyed.”
“Absolutely cut off from the world”
But the red-green-red Senate in Berlin is convinced of the sense of the project. And many inmates are apparently impatiently waiting for their access to the Internet – according to prison rules.
Adrian U., for example, has been serving his sentence in Tegel Prison for three years. He still has two and a half years ahead of him. “I feel absolutely cut off from the outside world,” he says. He too would like to have the opportunity in his cell to “make contact with his family or with the authorities in order to prepare for the time after his release”. When asked which services he wants to use first, Adrian U. answers: “Simply all of them.”