Working prisoners should earn 3.37 euros per hour

At pressure from the Federal Constitutional Court, working prisoners in Bavaria will receive an hourly wage of 3.37 euros from July 1st. The state parliament plans to decide on a corresponding application for laws on Thursday. Bavaria’s prisoners are currently receiving 2.02 euros. The consent of the parliament is ultimately a pure formal.

« With the increase in the remuneration from 9 to 15 percent of the average wage of the statutory pension insurance and the addition of further remuneration components, the targets of the Federal Constitutional Court are taken into account, » said Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich of the German Press Agency in Munich.

Work is used for re -socialization – not for winning destinations

However, the CSU politician made no secret of the fact that the connection of work and wages behind bars had no priority for him. «Working of prisoners only serves the goal of re -socialization. It’s not about making profit.  » In addition, it must be considered that the state would also incur costs as a result of the detention. « The income only covers about five percent of the expenses necessary for the execution. »

According to the Ministry of Justice, the costs of the prison system in 2024 amounted to a total of 661.5 million euros. This was offset by work income of only around 34.3 million euros. In the past ten years, 45.5 million euros have been spent to create new workers, to renovate existing ones or to equip them with modern machines.

Examples of own businesses are tailoring for simple sewing work, carpenters with woodworking, locksmiths with the production of bars and railings, metal processing, printing companies and laundries, which, in addition to cleaning the prisoner clothing, also offer services for external clients. Some products – such as slippers or kitchen utensils – are also sold directly via an online trade.

There are currently around 10,000 prisoners in Bavaria

In addition to the protection of the general public, the re -socialization of the approximately 10,000 prisoners in Bavaria is the primary goal of the prison, said Eisenreich. « We want to prepare the prisoners for a life without crimes. » There are a total of around 440 workers in the Bavarian prisons.

The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe had judged in June 2023 that mini-wages for prisoners were two euros or less unconstitutional. Two working prisoners from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, who had sued the amount of their remuneration, had sued.

New regulation must take place by the end of June

The federal states subsequently had to regulate their respective laws by the end of June 2025 at the latest. However, the court did not oblige them to create a retrospective remuneration regulation. The federal states regulate such questions of prison itself. In most, most of the prisoners are obliged to work.