Prisoners have a basic right to information. But in prison everything costs money: wages are one to three euros an hour, a minute on the phone can cost 70 cents, and there is no free internet. A newspaper subscription is out of reach. This is exactly where Freiabonnements für Gefangene e.V. comes in, founded in 1985 at the request of prisoners and on the initiative of people around the newspaper taz, and to this day the only nationwide newspaper service for people in prison.
The association arranges between 2,000 and 3,000 subscriptions a month, free for the recipients, financed through publishers‘ discounts and donations. Some donors have been with it for more than forty years. Anyone imprisoned in Germany can approach the association directly.
Added to that are projects that go deeper: the round table for foreign prisoners, since 2000 together with the Berlin prison advisory board, religious support for Muslim prisoners, a cookery course for women at Lichtenberg prison, a book fund and the Christmas campaign „Ein Buch als Weihnachtsgeschenk“. Since September 2025 Mara Stirner has run the office; her predecessor Sybill Knobloch, who led the association for 35 years, stays on board as a project manager.
Founded1985, from the circle around the taz
Reach2,000–3,000 newspaper subscriptions a month, nationwide
PlaceKöpenicker Str. 175, ground floor
Websitefreiabos.de
Donation accountBank für Sozialwirtschaft, IBAN DE02 1002 0500 0003 0854 00