On a beautiful spring day in Berlin, a tour bus arrived outside Tegel, a maximum-security prison. It had the feel of a college campus with its cobblestones, bike racks, and blooming azaleas.
North Dakota deputy jail warden Shannon Davison, however, saw security risks.
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Ms. Davison clocked them in seconds. She was a member of a delegation of U.S. jail officials who were there to learn about Germany’s system. Prisoners laboring beyond the fence. Vape pens, a potentially valuable product, are used by guards. Broom handles, a metal-wheeled cart, and opening cell windows.
There were other items, such as a warden casually setting a huge ring of keys on the floor next to her chair, that you just wouldn’t see in an American prison.
Ms. Davison was astounded to learn that they treat their maximum-security inmates in the same manner as their minimum-security counterparts. Nevertheless, compared to many American prisons, Tegel Prison is significantly less violent.
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