Prisons in Germany are a set of penal institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany. Their purpose is rehabilitation--to enable prisoners to lead a life of "social responsibility without committing criminal offenses" upon release--and public safety.[1] Prisons are administered by each federal state[2] , but governed by an overarching federal law. There are 183 prisons in all, with the most located in Germany's most populous states Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia.[3] In 2022, the total number of prisoners in Germany was 56,325, an incarceration rate of 67 per 100,000 people.[4]
Prisoners in Germany are given different freedoms and responsibilities. Most prisoners are obligated to perform paid work in an effort to promote resocialization efforts.[5] Often, prisoners have television, posters hanging in their cells, private bathrooms, and free time in which they can roam around outside their cells. These conditions, along with the focus on rehabilitation, have resulted in advocates using German prisons as an example for improvement to prison conditions in other parts of the world.[6][7][8]