Good question. I’d guess it’s probably a mix of several contributing factors: - For immigrants from (non-EU) countries, it can be hard to almost impossible to

Good question. I’d guess it’s probably a mix of several contributing factors: - For immigrants from (non-EU) countries, it can be hard to almost impossible to obtain a work permit. If the police learns they’re dealing with such a case, they know the perpetrator is probably going to pick up the same business no matter whether they spend one night behind bars or three years. They’re probably going to go back to selling drugs either way. But that means two things: 1. Putting those people (who certainly need a way to feed their families) behind bars is not going to be worth the hassle. 2. The desire to do meaningful work can cause police officers to look away and focus on other kinds of crime (and often prevention) where they feel their work has an actual impact. - German prisons are usually not privately owned or operated. There’s relatively little incentive to fill them, and each prisoner costs the state money. - The German justice system is leaning more towards rehabilitating criminals than punishing them. Judges know very well what trade-offs are involved whenever they lock a person away so they tend to hand out prison terms rather conservatively.