Overview

• A Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland survey found every state justice ministry intends to continue using Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe.
• People jailed on substitute sentences account for about 4% of inmates in Hamburg and 11% in Brandenburg, according to the reported state data.
• More than 40,000 people serve such terms each year, roughly a tenth of the prison population, often for low-level offenses like repeated fare evasion.
• Critics including Hamburg justice senator Anna Gallina and NRW minister Benjamin Limbach urge legal changes, with calls to decriminalize fare evasion to ease prisons.
• Supporters such as Rhineland-Palatinate minister Philipp Fernis say the measure is a necessary pressure tool to secure payment of fines, while the German Bar Association reports Berlin custody costs exceed €220 per day, totaling millions.