The discussion is based on site visits to 17 German prisons and 13 English prisons. Germany has no central authority, because it is a federal country consisting of 16 member states, each with its own Ministry of Justice. Thus, each German prison must be considered in conjunction with the politics of the particular state. A female researcher in male prisons receives strange and sometimes hostile reactions, mostly from correctional personnel. Representatives of some correctional officers' associations made it clear that they oppose female discipline staff in their male jails. German correctional personnel must be familiar with the relevant laws and the handling of firearms. Living conditions in the prisons are directly influenced by the presiding judge's interpretation of the Penal Law Codes. Until 1987 Germany had a relatively high rate of imprisonment compared to other countries in Europe, although it was lower than the rate in Great Britain. The average detention period in Germany was 7 months, compared to 3 months in the United Kingdom. The most important sentencing reforms in German legal history were the Second Criminal Law Reform Act of 1969 and the Einfuhrungsgesetz zum Strafgesetzbuch of 1974. The 1969 reforms encouraged the use of fines as the main penalty for less serious offenses, restricted short-term imprisonment, reorganized the conditions of suspension, relaxed the conditions of parole, and introduced the system of cautioning with a deferred sentence. Photograph and table