Details
Legal instruments & key provisions
| Legal instrument | Key provision |
|---|---|
| German Constitutional Law | The prisoner’s right to extramural contact is provided for in the German Constitutional Law, in particular through the protection of marriage and family and the right to freedom of expression. |
| Federal State Level Acts | State legislation differs in respect to the regulation of minimum visiting hours of the prisoners, from at least one hour (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein) to a minimum of 4 hours per month (Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Saxony). All state legislation provides the prisoner’s right to written correspondence. |
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS
| Year | Recommendation | Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Before the Covid-19 pandemic, prisoners at Straubing and Landsberg am Lech Prisons were only allowed to make telephone calls – as in all Bavarian prisons as per Article 35 of the Bavarian Prison Act – upon request and “in urgent cases”, for example if they otherwise had no visitors or if a relative had died. This made Bavaria the only Land where, apart from actual visits, the external contacts of prisoners were, in normal times, limited to letters. | Report details |
| 2022 | Additional communication options – such as video calls – were introduced in almost all of the prisons during the coronavirus pandemic in order to facilitate contact with the outside world. In a number of facilities, prisoners can now request video calls in addition to visits. The National Agency also found that prisons were increasingly installing telephones in the cells. | Report details |