Ever more citizens are living behind bars – all over Europe. Is the world really becoming more violent, or are we as a society simply “locking away” more and more people. Large parts of the continent are faced with a lack of cells, guards and social workers. What are the conditions in Germany’s and France’s prisons like? What is the state of the European criminal justice system and how useful is jail as an “institution” in our societies at all?

Filmmaker Johan von Mirbach accompanies prisoners in closed custody and the open prison system, in Germany as well as in France, where prisons are on average 114 percent overcrowded. He interviews prison directors and criminal investigators, former offenders, politicians and historians to find out about the mechanisms the criminal justice system and the arrangements that are taken to modernize the criminal justice system.

In Germany and France, about 127,000 people are behind bars. The majority are detained for crimes related to drug abuse or minor offences. More than half of them reoffend within three years of their release from prison. Overcrowded prisons call into question the idea of punitive democracy – society seems to simply “lock away” people whereas the initial purpose of punishment is supposed to be resocialisation of inmates.

Matthias feels that his six-year sentence is a waste of time and Torsten has been returning to prison again and again for 30 years now. Only now, at the age of 50, he is willing to change his life.

In addition to the traditional closed custody system, Germany strives for modernization: in the country’s open prison system, prisoners are supposed to be prepared for a life after their detainment. Does it really work?