Those who cannot or do not want to pay a fine should not have to spend as much time in prison as a substitute. That says a draft for the revision of the sanctions law, which Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) handed over to the other departments of the federal government for approval on Tuesday.
If they agree to the proposals, the conversion scale would be changed. So far, the following has applied: a daily fine – depending on the respective net income of the person concerned – corresponds to one day’s imprisonment. In the future, this duration could be halved. Then convicts who cannot or do not want to pay would only have to spend half a day in prison for a daily fine.
As a rule, replacement prison sentences are imposed in Germany for minor offences, for example fare evasion or petty theft. The aim of the planned change is fewer and shorter prison terms for these convicts. Because their imprisonment, according to the draft, usually does not contribute to resocialization in society.
The shortening of the prison terms should also make it easier for convicted people not to have to serve substitute prison sentences in the first place. Because that would be possible in many cases with the help of charitable work. However, many of those affected are deterred by the high number of hours, preferring to go to prison. Since the change in the law would also halve the hours of social work, the Ministry of Justice hopes there will be more motivation for this alternative punishment. Not least because a detention place costs the state around 130 euros per day. About a third of fines leading to imprisonment for non-payment are for petty theft or fraud.
Buschmann does not want to completely abolish the alternative prison sentence
However, many of them neither know their rights nor understand the possibilities of avoiding imprisonment. Therefore, in the future, enforcement authorities should inform convicts early enough, obligatory and in understandable language how they can avoid imprisonment with the help of community work. However, the Ministry of Justice does not want to completely abolish the alternative prison sentence.
The German Lawyers’ Association, on the other hand, has expressed fundamental doubts about the substitute detention and was critical of Buschmann’s draft: “In general, non-payment of fines is often a case of inability. This can be the case due to financial hardship(s), but also due to psychological and/or addiction problems. Criminal law, however, must not punish either poverty or social exclusion, but only criminality”.
The draft also contains other planned changes to the sanctions law. Penalties are to become more severe, for example, if acts are committed for “gender-specific” and “against sexual orientation” motives. The background is that in Germany every third day a man kills his (ex-)partner and every day a man tries to do so. A tightening would correspond to the current legal situation, according to which hatred of women and LGBTI people must generally be taken into account as a penalty.
This should be taken into account even more in future case law. The term “gender specific” is intended to include cases in which the act is shaped by ideas of gender inequality. To put it more simply: If a man uses violence against his partner, he will not only be punished more severely than usual if he clearly hates women. But also when he wants to assert his patriarchal claim to possession with the attack.
If the draft is approved by the cabinet in the fall, the reform could come into force next spring.