NCJ Number
164171
Journal
Key to Commonwealth Corrections Issue: 34 Dated: (Spring 1996) Pages: 12-15
Date Published
1996
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The author, who heads Great Britain's Enterprise and Activity Services, visited four German prisons and compared their prison industries to those in English prisons.
Abstract
Regimes in German prisons essentially mean work and vocational training. The German prisons are better than the English prisons in getting the inmates to work and keeping them there for a respectable working week. With one or two exceptions, the types of work provided in German prisons match closely those found in England. German prisoners were seen trimming rubber gaskets, packing vacuum cleaner bags, assembling electrical fittings, and filing off aluminum casting for car engines and escalator treads. Engineering and woodwork were prominent in the German industries, just as they are in England. The main difference between the German and English type and quality of work was that German industries were organized more on jobbing than mass production lines. Although this may in some ways be more satisfying for staff and inmates, it was probably one of the reasons why the German output and productivity figures were unimpressive. An important feature of German prison enterprises is the high proportion of external work and of involvement with the local economies of the prisons' surrounding areas. In England and Wales, prison enterprises are still dominated by production for use within the Prison Service. Average pay in German prison industries is approximately 30 pounds per week, with the possibility of earnings up to 50 pounds in the most skilled work. Despite the higher pay levels, the productivity of German inmates is no greater than in Great Britain. The author concludes that although German prison industries have many positive and interesting features, there is no reason to conclude they do better overall than do British prison industries.