Women Inmates Fight With Mashed Potato In Germany Jail, Fined 4,500 Euros

The two women cellmates at the prison in Germany's Augsburg town began throwing potato mash at each other after a disagreement over food.

File image of a justice vehicle standing in front of the security lock of a prison in Augsburg | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: Two women inmates in a prison in Germany’s Augsburg were slapped a hefty fine as they were involved in a messy brawl that started with a fight over food, news agency Associated Press reported.

Quoting German news agency dpa, the report said that the cellmates at the prison in Augsburg began throwing potato mash at each other after a disagreement on Wednesday. One woman then threw her plate of food at the other, and the latter responded in a similar way, the report said.

The situation took a turn for the worse as the fight escalated into a brawl in which both inmates sustained injuries, according to the report.

A court in Augsburg, a town in southern Germany, sentenced one of the defendants to pay a fine of 2,700 euros ($3,045), and served a fine of 1,800 euros ($2,030) on the other. 

The women will have to spend another 180 and 120 days behind bars, respectively, if they fail to pay the fine, the report said.

Data until June 2021 shows Germany has a prison population rate of 71 per 1 lakh of national population, according to a world prisons report.

The official capacity of the country's prison system is 72,398, and the occupancy level in the jails, based on the official capacity, is 81.6 per cent. Women prisoners account for 5.8 per cent of the total prison population. The total population of Germany is a little more than 8.4 crore, according to 2020 data.