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🇩🇪 Germany /Crime & Justice

Thousands of mobile phones smuggled into North Rhine-Westphalia prisons

From Der Spiegel · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement Context piece
  • North Rhine-Westphalia prisons found 6,839 mobile phones among inmates since 2022, including 1,011 so far this year.
  • Open prisons accounted for many of the discoveries, including 1,141 phones at Bielefeld-Senne and 389 at Bochum.
  • The figures came from a report by Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach to the state parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s prisons have seized 6,839 mobile phones since 2022, according to a current report by Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach to the state parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.

Officials found 1,011 phones among prisoners this year alone. A list from the Justice Ministry shows that open prisons appear to face the biggest problem.

Bielefeld-Senne recorded 1,141 phones since 2022. By comparison, officials seized 63 smuggled phones during the same period at Bielefeld’s closed prison. Bochum prison recorded 389 mobile phones.

About this summary

Originally published by Der Spiegel in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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