Germany doesn't do this for speeding tickets either afaik, mostly for crimes for which the judge can sentence to either jail or a fine, like theft or drug dealing. Fines that are on a lower level (like misdemeanors I think in English), are often fixed here as well.
And it gets very unfair here as well because in Germany you can get locked up for not paying such minor fines. So a lot of people end up being locked up for fare dodging on public transport for example, because they repeatedly fail to pay the fines for that. Like in my city state Hamburg over 600 people are locked up every year for repeatedly failing to buy public transport tickets. Which is a ridiculous percentage of people in jail considering that there are about 1800 places in local jails in my city. Of course they aren't locked up for a whole year but much shorter so it isn't a third of inmates but still appalling. And even if you don't care about the unfairness it also obviously costs a lot.
Jailing folks for not paying fees is a common pattern here as well; some jurisdictions do it on purpose, because prisoners are then used as a source of free labor for local government and businesses.
There is an effort to push back on this, but it's very hard to change once for-profit prison companies stock the local law enforcement and judiciary with favorable people.
(no subject)
And it gets very unfair here as well because in Germany you can get locked up for not paying such minor fines. So a lot of people end up being locked up for fare dodging on public transport for example, because they repeatedly fail to pay the fines for that. Like in my city state Hamburg over 600 people are locked up every year for repeatedly failing to buy public transport tickets. Which is a ridiculous percentage of people in jail considering that there are about 1800 places in local jails in my city. Of course they aren't locked up for a whole year but much shorter so it isn't a third of inmates but still appalling. And even if you don't care about the unfairness it also obviously costs a lot.
(no subject)
There is an effort to push back on this, but it's very hard to change once for-profit prison companies stock the local law enforcement and judiciary with favorable people.