Switzerland's Prison Population Surges To 10 Year Highs

Switzerland’s Prison Population Surges To 10 Year Highs

Mon, Apr 29th 2024

Switzerland’s prison occupancy surged to its highest level in a decade as of January 2024.

At the end of January 2024, 6881 women and men were behind bars in Switzerland. That is 7% more than a year ago. The occupancy rate rose to its highest level in ten years.

The number of people in prison is comparable to that before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. 64% of prisoners were serving sentences or measures, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Monday. 30% were in pre-trial detention or preventive detention and 6% were detained for other reasons.

Despite the increase in the number of inmates in January 2024, the number of prison places remained stable compared to the previous year at 7251. This increased the occupancy rate across Switzerland by over five percentage points. On January 31, 2024, almost 95 of all prison places in Switzerland’s correctional facilities were occupied, the highest number since 2014.

Significant Increase in Occupancy Rates

The increase compared to 2023 was greater in the two German-speaking Switzerland concordats than in the Latin Switzerland concordat. Nevertheless, the occupancy rates in the Northwestern and Central Switzerland Concordat (92.7%) and the Eastern Switzerland Concordat (88.4%) were below the Swiss average. Although the occupancy rate in the concordat of Latin Switzerland increased only slightly (+3.4%), it exceeded 100% for the first time since 2021 (102.4%).

On January 31, 2024, there were 2076 people in pre-trial detention or preventive detention (+7.9% compared to 2023). According to the FSO, this is the second-highest result for this detention category since the survey began in 1988. Of these 2076 people, 6.3% were women and 22% were Swiss nationals. Over half of the people were imprisoned in the cantons of Zurich, Vaud and Geneva.

©Keystone/SDA

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Switzerland’s Prison Population Surges To 10 Year Highs

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Significant Increase in Occupancy Rates

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