Daily life in a German prison | DW Documentary

Around 44,000 men and women are incarcerated in Germany's approximately 170 prisons. About 1,800 are serving time for murder, while most are incarcerated for assault, robbery, theft or drug-related offenses.

One of them is Marcel M., serving time in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison. A repeat offender, he calls it "Stealing, stealing, stealing — all for the addiction." Marcel was living with a drug addiction, it's landed him in prison several times. He's already spent a third of his life behind bars. He wants this to be the last time. Marcel is finishing up his training in the prison's car workshop. After he's released, he wants to find a steady job.
Plötzensee Prison in Berlin has space for around 650 places for male inmates. Some 250 correctional officers look after the prisoners in shifts. Helena Emisch has worked there for eight years now. She knows the prison inside and out and aims each day to strike a balance between professional distance and connecting with the inmates. Locking and unlocking cells, head counts, distributing packages, administering medication and supervising the yard before recreational time are all part of her job. She also conducts cell searches, looking for drugs and other illegal items. "It's a game of cat and mouse between us and the inmates. Sometimes we win, sometimes they do," she says.
Vechta is home to the only women's prison in the German state of Lower Saxony. Melanie F. is one of around 300 inmates there. She, too, turned to crime because of her drug use. She's now serving her third prison sentence — this time for armed robbery. "Prison was hell for me, and prison saved me," she says. Melanie now describes the prison as her substitute family. She feels more at home at Vechta Prison than she does in the outside world. Inside, she's now completed her drug treatment and is currently training to work as a painter.


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