0:00 sixty minutes rewind not many issues can
0:05 unite Democrats and Republicans but
0:07 criminal justice reform is one of them
0:09 after 30 years of being tough on crime
0:12 in the u.s. no other nation incarcerate
0:15 smore of its citizens than we do we have
0:18 5% of the world's population but 25% of
0:22 its prisoners the cost of housing all
0:24 those inmates eighty billion dollars a
0:26 year
0:27 we found that American politicians and
0:30 prison supervisors are looking for new
0:32 ideas in Germany the main objective of
0:36 German prisons is rehabilitation not
0:38 retribution Germany spends less money on
0:42 prisons but gets better results their
0:44 recidivism rate is about half the US
0:47 rate we wondered if Germany had found a
0:50 key to prison reform so we visited three
0:53 German prisons but our trip started in a
0:56 small resort town about 100 miles north
0:59 of Berlin when the weather's warm the
1:06 lakeside town var and Germany attracts
1:08 families and tourists we found burned
1:11 younger there with his sister and niece
1:13 out for a stroll eating ice cream
1:15 sundaes and innocent scene if ever there
1:18 was one but younga is a convicted
1:21 murderer
1:22 currently serving a life sentence for a
1:24 contract killing he shot a woman to
1:27 death in cold blood
1:29 we spoke with him by the lake this is
1:32 part of your sentence this is part of
1:35 your punishment as well this is about
1:38 being reintegrated into a normal life
1:41 and that means rehabilitation and all
1:43 that so for me yes this is part of me
1:46 show this doesn't look much like
1:47 punishment yeah yes well that's the
1:50 German fairy tale
1:52 after 15 years in prison he's earned
1:55 weekend leave for good behavior he's on
1:58 track for early release in Germany 75
2:02 percent of lifers are paroled after 20
2:05 years or less if someone says to himself
2:08 is a German fairy tale if he doesn't
2:11 commit any crime send him off to release
2:12 it's okay you can think about this for
2:14 imprisonment what he wants yes is a
2:17 psychologist by training
2:19 he's now director of prisons in
2:21 Mecklenburg Western Pomerania a state in
2:24 North Germany along the baltic about the
2:27 size of New Hampshire
2:28 there are rich fields here brilliant Sun
2:31 sets and vol deck the maximum security
2:35 prison where Bernd younga is serving
2:37 time should he have a future for himself
2:40 he took a life yes he should he should
2:43 he should yes invited us to vol day to
2:47 show us how the German system works
2:49 there you go it is reintegration into
2:52 society train them to find a different
2:56 way to handle their situation outside
2:58 life without further crimes life without
3:01 creating new victims things like that
3:05 where does punishment come in the
3:06 incarceration the imprisonment itself is
3:09 punishment you the loss of freedom
3:11 that's it I think Americans think crime
3:14 and punishment you say punishment is not
3:18 even part of the goal of a German prison
3:21 no at all not at all so life inside
3:26 prison mirrors life outside as much as
3:28 possible germans call it normalization
3:31 it starts with small prison populations
3:34 low-level offenders get fines or
3:37 probation prison is reserved for the
3:39 worst of the worst murderers rapists
3:42 career criminals we were surprised how
3:45 quiet and peaceful it was inside walnut
3:48 we wondered where all the inmates were
3:50 it turns out they were relaxing outside
3:53 on this sunny day
3:56 this is unbelievable you're in for
3:59 murder and you have a key to yourself
4:01 cells have doors not bars it's for
4:05 privacy inmates can decorate as they
4:07 please we saw your new Bach playing
4:11 video games in his cell he told us he
4:15 was convicted of large-scale cocaine
4:17 trafficking and gun possession he's
4:19 serving seven years compared to cells in
4:23 the United States this is quite
4:24 luxurious also spoofing yes it is
4:27 comfortable here as a prisoner here it's
4:30 alright he says being separated from his
4:33 family makes prison hard not the
4:35 conditions he has a private bathroom and
4:38 things that would give American prison
4:40 guards the jitters you have darts we've
4:43 got a letter opener you have legs on the
4:46 table that you could break off and use
4:48 as a club you've got quite a bit of
4:51 freedom in here what I know gone to a
4:54 knock on door gosh I haven't even
4:56 thought about that here this is normal
4:59 mule box day is normal too he gets up
5:03 and goes to work in the prison kitchen
5:06 after his shift
5:08 there's R&R darts in the common room
5:11 beach volleyball in the yard there's a
5:15 lot to do he told us my course painting
5:19 course pottery smuggling of old soccer
5:21 Jim crocheting painting and crochet yeah
5:26 my aunt Hagen yes painting and crochet
5:29 and in crochet we make hats oven mitts
5:33 whatever you need we visited several
5:35 German prisons and were amazed how
5:38 laid-back everybody seemed at each of
5:40 them prisoners and guards high during
5:43 prison outside Berlin is as clean and
5:46 bright as a Google campus the prison is
5:48 surrounded by fences not walls so
5:51 inmates can see the outside world the
5:54 prison uniform street clothes for the
5:57 inmate who finds this too stressful
5:59 there's yoga
6:01 this probably isn't the image that comes
6:04 to mind when most Americans think of
6:06 German prisons that's likely to conjure
6:09 a brutal images from World War two but
6:11 following that war respect for the human
6:14 dignity and freedom of all people was
6:16 written into the German constitution
6:18 privacy is sacrosanct there is no death
6:21 penalty at old facilities like Tegel in
6:24 Berlin or new ones like hi during the
6:27 focus is on humane treatment and
6:30 rehabilitation prison guards are key
6:33 they're well-paid and highly trained
6:36 they spend two years learning psychology
6:39 communication skills conflict management
6:42 yessuh calls them calm down experts
6:45 calming down calming down calming down
6:48 not showing power too much I'm not
6:50 showing guns not showing weapons they
6:53 use solitary confinement sparingly
6:56 yessir says there's little violence in
6:59 german prisons how do you explain that
7:01 if you treat them as if they are your
7:04 enemy they will react as enemies they
7:08 will react as as dangerous in fact many
7:12 of them are dangerous we were up there
7:15 on a row where everyone you asked I was
7:17 in for murder murder murder they all
7:19 human beings and they know a violent
7:22 manner and we do exactly the other way
7:25 around don't be aggressive show them
7:27 that there is a different kind of
7:28 conversation possible the conversation
7:33 starts right away it's based on therapy
7:37 psychologists make an initial assessment
7:39 of all new inmates and devise
7:41 personalized prison plans for them
7:44 recommendations for counseling classes
7:48 vocational training and work inmates who
7:52 follow the plan earn greater freedom and
7:55 early release we cannot see the sense in
7:58 just locking people up for their whole
8:00 lives
8:00 your prisons will fill up and you have
8:02 to build new prisons and so on and I
8:04 think that was the situation in the u.s.
8:06 the story will continue after this
8:14 with more than two million inmates in US
8:18 prisons more Americans are coming to
8:20 Germany seeking solutions we joined US
8:27 prison and law enforcement officials on
8:29 this tour in Berlin Connecticut Governor
8:32 Dannel Malloy was part of the group he
8:34 was impressed by what he saw I can tell
8:37 you they have a lower crime rate than we
8:39 do they have a lower recidivism rate
8:40 than we do and they're spending a lot
8:42 less money on jails in the u.s. we've
8:45 got much greater access to guns we've
8:47 got race as a factor and ethnicity as a
8:49 factor are the things being done here
8:53 directly transferable to the United
8:55 States I think there are many things
8:57 that are transferable that doesn't mean
8:59 that it's a perfect fit but I think we
9:01 have to challenge ourselves to do better
9:04 this doesn't have the same vibe doesn't
9:07 feel like the prisons in Germany at all
9:10 a little bit more intense may relevant
9:13 more intense
9:14 John Wetzel is Pennsylvania's Secretary
9:16 of Corrections three years ago he went
9:19 to Germany looking for ideas to improve
9:21 his prisons he showed us around
9:24 Graterford outside Philadelphia it's the
9:27 largest maximum-security prison in
9:29 Pennsylvania 3,300 prisoners are packed
9:32 in here we were walking through an 80
9:35 year old cellblock I'll stop back when
9:38 this inmate approached he said he was a
9:41 low-level drug offender Wetzel started
10:03 as a prison guard three decades ago back
10:06 in 1980 there were 8,000 inmates in the
10:09 state today there are 50,000 physical
10:13 and sexual assaults are a fact of life
10:15 at Graterford there are more than 700
10:18 lifers Pennsylvania State where life
10:21 means life so if you're doing life here
10:23 you're not gonna be walking around a
10:25 park eating sundaes with your family
10:28 when Wetzel was in Germany
10:30 urug yessuh gave him a tour of valdek
10:33 you were skeptical it almost sounded
10:35 like Disneyland
10:36 oh there's very few inmates and inmates
10:39 have their own keys and everybody gets
10:41 along and everything's hunky-dory I mean
10:43 who's buying that story not me
10:46 by the end of his visit Wetzel was
10:49 buying it
10:50 he started implementing some of the
10:52 things he saw in Germany like more
10:54 intensive staff training greater freedom
10:57 for inmates with good behavior and
10:59 programs to help them reenter society we
11:02 the American public called for tougher
11:05 sentencing throwing away the key are we
11:08 there for this more lenient approach I
11:12 think our culture we don't want to think
11:15 lenient we don't want to thank soft we
11:18 got here by being tough on crime
11:21 I think we're getting away from it by
11:22 being smart on crime and and smart on
11:25 crime happens to be more lenient
11:28 sometimes Germans think their prisons
11:30 are too lenient but the system is
11:32 mandated and protected by the country's
11:35 highest court there are problems they
11:39 have gangs they have drugs they've seen
11:41 signs of Islamic radicalization they try
11:44 to counter it all with counseling but
11:47 there are inmates deemed too dangerous
11:49 to release they wind up in something
11:52 called preventive detention at Berlin's
11:55 Tegel prison
11:56 we met Chris templayer he has spent the
11:59 eighteen years not knowing when or if
12:02 you'll ever get out they think I am
12:05 dangerous so what can I say what can I
12:08 show them I don't know you did bad
12:12 things really bad things yes he wouldn't
12:16 tell us his crimes and German privacy
12:19 laws kept us from finding out his life
12:21 is confined to this well-appointed
12:24 apartment like building look around this
12:27 is life in prison for Germany's worst
12:30 offenders you expect to be here until
12:33 you die maybe yes but convicted murderer
12:40 burned younger expects to get out in
12:43 September he stuck to his plan and
12:46 earned the freedom to leave prison every
12:48 day for work a maintenance job at the
12:51 nearby port you could escape if you
12:54 wanted to yeah but you don't not why not
12:59 very simple my time is almost over and I
13:03 want to be done with this chapter of my
13:04 life once and for all at Pennsylvania's
13:08 Graterford prison this is where
13:10 murderers are housed locked up 23 hours
13:14 a day I think more now than any time in
13:20 the history of our country we have the
13:21 right and left agree that that we've
13:23 frankly screwed up the correction system
13:25 for 30 years and it's time to do
13:27 something different it really starts
13:29 with understanding that you know human
13:32 beings value isn't diminished by being
13:34 incarcerated what you're talking about
13:36 requires a huge mind shift on the part
13:39 of all of us it's crossing the Grand
13:42 Canyon that's what we're talking about
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