Judiciary
Christmas amnesty: prisoners earlier at large
A corridor with cells in the Düsseldorf prison. The traditional Christmas amnesty has already given 277 prisoners in North Rhine-Westphalia premature freedom this year. Photo: Marcel Kusch / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Shortly before Christmas, the judiciary traditionally releases prisoners with good conduct, whose sentences would soon expire anyway. The conditions are strict – and not all countries participate.
This year, too, the German judiciary has shown itself to be lenient and released a number of prisoners from custody shortly before Christmas.
At least 790 detainees are allowed or were allowed to leave their prisons earlier, as a survey by the German Press Agency has shown. In the past year, more than 960 offenders were pardoned prematurely nationwide.
The Christmas amnesty is intended to facilitate reintegration into society: Discharge before the holidays enables, for example, the handling of necessary administrative procedures and other appointments such as therapy or job interviews as well as the use of offers of help and advice centers before they go into the Christmas break. Experience has shown that looking for an apartment and job are difficult at the end of the year, said the Berlin Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt (Greens). In the capital, 123 criminals were released early from custody six weeks before Christmas Eve. The Senate Justice Administration announced this on request. In the previous year, 141 Berlin prisoners had benefited from the decision.
Usually just a few days beforehand
In most federal states, a release from detention is only possible if the release would have been due between November and the beginning of January anyway. Usually it is a matter of days that prisoners are released early, not months. Only inmates who have not received negative attention in prison and who have not served a long term imprisonment are eligible for release. An earlier release is generally excluded if the prisoner has been convicted of drug trafficking, gross violence or other serious offenses.
The most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia releases the most prisoners nationwide. According to the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, 277 prisoners were given premature freedom this year. The number is likely to increase, because experience has shown that more prisoners will benefit from the amnesty in the coming days. In the previous year, 247 prisoners had been released by the beginning of December, in 2019 – before the corona pandemic – 522 prisoners at the beginning of Advent.
In Baden-Württemberg, 184 of the 6500 prisoners were released earlier than originally planned, one less than last year, said the Ministry of Justice in Stuttgart. According to the Ministry of Justice, 40 people were released in the Free State of Saxony, where criminals are only released for the second time after 2020 before their actual term of imprisonment (previous year: 58).
Hundreds of days of imprisonment not enforced
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it is expected that 43 prisoners will enjoy the Christmas amnesty. In Saxony-Anhalt, 22 prisoners are expected to be released in the course of the Christmas amnesty. The Ministry of Justice in Magdeburg announced that a total of 506 days of imprisonment would not be carried out. The city-state of Bremen has already released 21 prisoners. No figures were initially reported from Hesse, Lower Saxony and Brandenburg.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, 80 prison inmates can look forward to an early release this year, as the Ministry of Justice announced. Last year 110 prisoners benefited from the regulation, the year before 123. The lower number this year is indirectly related to the corona pandemic, said spokesman Christoph Burmeister. The enforcement of so-called substitute custodial sentences – i.e. people who have been sentenced to a fine but do not pay it – is still partially postponed. Therefore, the total number of prisoners is still below average – and with it the number of those who can fall under the pardon regulation.
Prisoners are not released early in the course of the Christmas amnesty in all federal states. The Ministry of Justice in Saarbrücken announced that the conditions for pardons were not met for any prisoners in Saarland this year. In principle, the Free State of Bavaria never pardons at the end of the year. A Christmas amnesty “would grant a not objectively justified advantage over other prisoners whose term of imprisonment – coincidentally – ends at other times, such as Easter or Pentecost,” said the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.