Dodgers, Paragraph 235, and Jail

 This is an odd topic.

Back in 1935 (the Nazi era).....Hessen (my local German state) wrote up a law that had to do with fare-dodgers (term usually used is Schwarzfahren).  If you were riding a bus or train in the state, and a audit is conducted....if you fail to show a ticket, you get into a fine situation, and potentially jail.

The normal fine these days?  Sixty Euro (roughly $70 US).  I know some of you can remember the 1970s era, and the fine was around 20 DM's ($10).  

So this got brought up via HR (regional Hessen public TV).  They point out the obvious issue.  A fair number of folks (certainly not the majority)....ride without a ticket.  An example.....you live on the west end of Frankfurt with a subway point one block away, and you need to ride the train three stops to reach your job.  You question the inner-city ticket (1.50 Euro, one-way).  You also question the all-city ticket one-way (2.50 Euro).  You even question the all-city-all-day ticket at 5.35 Euro.  

So you just board the train....intent to ride three stops and get off, without a ticket.  Maybe one time out of sixty....you make it without an audit.  Then that day comes up.....the audit guy catches you, and it's a 60 Euro fine.  

Maybe out of every ten fare-dodgers....there's at least one guy/gal, who gets pretty direct on avoiding the audit guy, and using violent means to escape.  Thats why cops now accompany the audit folks.  The minute you use violent means?  That trips you up into the next level of trouble.

There's this foundation which went out and asked about consequences and what the government is spending on jail. For last year, roughly 3,000 people were dragged into court for using various means to escape or act out violence.....in the state of Hessen.  They figure the state now spends around 37,000 Euro per DAY.....to handle the fare-dodgers....just in Hessen.

How much is collected on the 60 Euro fines?  Well....that gets interesting....no one has a solid number.  You'd think that each day....the audit guys turn their records in and someone ought to say in an average month....x-amount is made.  

So HR points out this one odd factor.....the majority of these people are the bottom class of people....the ones who don't really have the 1.50 Euro for the one-way ticket anyway.  Yes, in some ways....this is the group in a social class with economic problems to start with. 

Fixing this?  You could write up fifty pages of material or talk over this for years....but it'd make more sense to make up a new lower economic-class ticket (say in the 15 Euro range for the whole month) that you'd prove once a year that you really didn't make much money.  And with this 15 Euro a month ticket....you'd ride the whole inner city....on a 24 hour basis....just by flashing a card.