Prison: labouring from two euros an hour

A blue container with a glass front stands in the car park of the Centre pénitentiaire de Luxembourg (CPL). The shop window displays a colourful selection of items for sale: Backpacks embroidered with tired-looking monster eyes, a swing grill, an insect hotel, a birdhouse and various decorative objects. What they all have in common is that they were all made by people behind the high walls of the closed prison.

In principle, anyone sentenced to prison in Luxembourg has to work. However, sanctions, which are theoretically possible under the law, are not imposed, according to the director of the prison administration. "They are locked up. That's all we can do and that's all we want to do. We can't force them to do anything. If they can get by with their financial income without working […] then they don't need to work, " emphasises Serge Legil.

At the beginning of September, more than 300 people, almost exclusively men, were serving a prison sentence in the CPL. Just over half of them, around 180, were working – cleaning the corridors, preparing the three daily meals, library service, car repair shop, carpentry and painting work to maintain the buildings, making benches, fire bowls or other items at the request of private companies, communities or charitable organisations.