Do people who board buses or trains in Germany know that riding without a ticket is a criminal offence that usually carries a €60 fine — and that failing to pay can ultimately lead to jail? The practice of converting unpaid fines into prison time is called Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe, or “substitute prison sentence,” and can be up to one year. In recent years between about 7,000 and 9,000 people have served time for fare evasion.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has proposed changing that: she wants to decriminalize riding without a ticket and avoid sending people to prison for it. “Do people who cannot afford a ticket and ultimately end up in prison really belong there?” she asked in an interview with Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Hubig proposes downgrading fare evasion from a criminal offence to a civil infraction, comparable to illegal parking. She points to a passage in last year’s coalition agreement — reached by the CDU/CSU and the SPD — promising to review and repeal superfluous regulations. Hubig argues that prison sentences for fare evasion fall into that category and that the justice system spends an estimated €200 million a year dealing with these cases.
The German Bar Association (DAV), representing some 60,000 lawyers, supports the move. DAV executive director Sven Walentowski said the public benefit of criminalising fare evasion is doubtful while the social harm is considerable.
But the proposal has met criticism. The CDU/CSU’s deputy parliamentary leader Günter Krings said the justice ministry should focus on more serious criminal-law problems. The police union GdP warned that decriminalisation might lead many people to stop caring whether they have a ticket. Hubig’s proposal could face the same obstacles as her predecessor Marco Buschmann’s 2023 suggestion to consider downgrading the offence. A 2023 infratest-dimap poll found about two-thirds of respondents supported no longer sending fare evaders to prison.
For years the Freiheitsfonds (“freedom fund”) initiative has campaigned against the law, which dates back to 1935. Funded by donations, the group says it has bailed out nearly 1,700 people. Spokesperson Leo Ihßen called the situation outrageous, noting that most imprisoned for fare evasion received summary fines and ended up jailed because they could not pay. He said the practice affects about 9,000 people in Germany each year.
Freiheitsfonds lists 13 German cities that currently refrain from filing criminal charges for fare evasion, including Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Bonn and Leipzig.
This article was translated from German.