Corsica: how this area actually works
Ajaccio, the capital, and Bastia, on the north-east coast, split the island's court geography. The maison d'arrêt at Borgo takes a large share of remand for the Haute-Corse side and is a road trip from Bastia, not a ferry rumour. Ajaccio's own house is a different south-west journey. Corte, in the interior, is a court and university town, not a reason to assume a prison in the mountains. Transfers to the mainland, often toward Toulon, Marseille or Paris, are a standing fact of island custody. The locator is still the French DAP, not an Italian page in Livorno and not a Sardinian one.
A prévenu on the island may need the juge d'instruction in Ajaccio or Bastia before a visit. A condamné needs a permis de visite from the établissement that actually holds him, which might already be on the continent. Weather, strikes and full boats change whether a family in Bastia can reach a mainland gate that week. French procedure does not pause because the person was arrested in Porto-Vecchio or Calvi. Those towns are not the maisons d'arrêt. Corte, in the interior, is a court town and not a mountain prison you can assume.
This page groups prisons recorded as Corsica. It does not list people in Ajaccio or Borgo. GENESIS remains internal. Read justice.gouv.fr and the island notice. Do not copy a Marseille Baumettes routine onto a Borgo visit, and do not copy it the other way if the letter has already moved the person to PACA. Ajaccio and Borgo publish their own notices. A ferry strike does not create a third house. Ajaccio is not Bastia. Calvi is a port, not the gate. Porto-Vecchio is not Borgo. Corte is inland. Check both coasts.
Finding someone held in Corsica
Corsica does not publish who is in Ajaccio or Borgo. Ask the lawyer on the island or the greffe, and use justice.gouv.fr. GENESIS is closed to families. A weekend arrest in Bastia may not be confirmed until the next working day, and it may already be a mainland transfer. Do not phone Borgo and expect a name. An Italian news site is not a French placement. Seysses and Muret will not confirm a stranger's name. Borgo and Ajaccio will not confirm a stranger's name by phone.
Borgo is not Ajaccio. If the letter names Les Baumettes, Luynes or a Paris maison, book the mainland, not the island. A permis de visite for Borgo is useless at Ajaccio and useless in Marseille. Confirm the établissement before you buy a flight or a ferry from Nice, Toulon or Marseille. Porto-Vecchio and Calvi are not the maisons d'arret. Bastia airport is not the Ajaccio house. Book the coast named in the letter, then read the notice. Then recheck it.
Visits and family practicalities
The permis is issued for one établissement. Remand on the island can require the local juge d'instruction. This guide does not invent hours for Ajaccio or Borgo. Read the notice, and build a weather buffer into the plan.
Bring the identification required. Phones stay outside. A cancelled ferry is not something the parloir will renegotiate. If the person has already been transferred to Toulon or Marseille, an island permit will not open the mainland gate. Re-check before you leave the port.
Getting around Corsica
Flights to Ajaccio or Bastia, and ferries from Marseille, Toulon or Nice, are the only serious approaches. Borgo is a Bastia-side road, not the Ajaccio airport. Interior roads through Corte are slow. Strikes and winter seas belong in the plan beside the permis.
There is no rail bridge from Nice. A same-day return to the continent is a gamble. Use the official address on the correct coast. Do not navigate to the préfecture in Ajaccio and expect the maison d'arrêt to share its door.