Foreign Inmates in German Prisons: A Significant Financial Burden

Foreign Inmates Dominate German Prisons

In several German states, over half of the prison population is made up of foreign inmates. This has resulted in a significant financial burden, with the cost of maintaining these prisoners amounting to around €2 billion a year, according to a report from Austrian news outlet Freilich.

Earlier in July, the German state media outlet SWR reported that for the first time, more than half of all prisoners in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg were foreigners. This figure currently stands at 50.8 percent. Further investigations by Freilich revealed that five other German states also have prison populations that are more than 50 percent foreign. The state with the highest proportion of foreigners is Hamburg, with 57.8 percent.

High Foreign Prison Populations in Other States

Other states like North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, may not reach 50 percent, but the numbers are still significantly high, at 40.4 percent. The top offenders are Turks, Poles, Syrians, Moroccans, and Romanians. In Bavaria, the second-largest state by population, 51.1 percent of the prison population is foreign, which includes 4,965 non-German nationals.

It's important to clarify that these statistics do not include individuals with a migration background. For instance, there is no data differentiating between ethnic Germans and Middle Easterners born in Germany. The data only shows if the perpetrator has a German passport or not.

Foreign Inmate Statistics in Other German States

In Hesse, 51.4 percent of the prison population is made up of foreigners, equaling 2,245 prisoners. The largest groups come from Algeria and Morocco, but other top groups include Turks, Romanians, and Afghans, according to the Ministry of Justice.

As of July 22, 2024, Berlin had 2,024 foreign prisoners, representing 56.4 percent of the total number, which stands at 3,588. The largest groups are Poles, Turks, Serbians, and Georgians. In Bremen, the smallest federal state, the number of foreign prisoners totaled 56 percent.

Other federal states, especially those with a smaller share of foreigners, have lower numbers. These include Lower Saxony, which has 37.6 percent of the prison population made up of foreigners, Rhineland-Palatinate with 33.9 percent, Saxony at 43.2 percent, Schleswig-Holstein at 34.6 percent, Brandenburg at 36.8 percent, Saxony-Anhalt at 21.4 percent, Saarland at 30.7 percent, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at 22.1 percent.

Thuringia has the lowest proportion of foreign offenders, making up 15.9 percent of the population out of a total of 1,072 prisoners, although this information is based on older sources.

Increasing Costs and Calls for Policy Changes

Freilich points out that "the accommodation of prisoners places a considerable burden on public coffers and taxpayers." The total cost of accommodating prisoners is around €4.137 billion per year, of which around €1.815 billion is spent on foreign prisoners in the correctional facilities of the 16 federal states.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party argues that these figures reflect the failed policies of the older parties. Martin Hess, deputy domestic policy spokesman of the AfD parliamentary group, who was also a police officer in Baden-Württemberg for 27 years, stated that the migration policy of the old parties has completely failed.

Hess believes that only a complete turnaround in migration policy, as the AfD has been demanding for years, will improve the security situation. He also emphasized the need for decisive action against escalating crime by foreigners, not only for security reasons but also for financial reasons, as every prisoner is a significant burden on the public purse and therefore on the taxpayer.

Bottom Line

The high proportion of foreign prisoners in German prisons is a significant issue that is causing a considerable financial burden on the country. It raises questions about the effectiveness of current migration policies and the need for reform. What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think a change in migration policy could help address this problem? Share this article with your friends and discuss it further. Don't forget to sign up for the Daily Briefing, which is available every day at 6pm.