Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera prison guides

Swiss prisons: cantonal JVA guides, Champ-Dollon, Pöschwies and visits

Swiss imprisonment is a cantonal job. Geneva’s Champ-Dollon will not answer a Zürich question. Pöschwies, Thorberg and Hindelbank each sit under a different administration. There is no federal inmate search. Twenty-six cantons.

Ask the canton, not “Switzerland”

Champ-Dollon is Geneva’s chronically overcrowded remand jail. Zürich uses Pöschwies for sentenced men. Bern has Thorberg. Hindelbank is the main women’s house. A federal website will not tell you which one holds a relative — the cantonal Vollzugsbehörde will.

How Switzerland is carved up on this site

Switzerland (Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera) is a separate country folder — not a tab on a mixed European roster, and not a US state code. The analogue of a US state here is the first-level unit: Cantons. Twenty-six cantons. Geneva will not answer Zürich. Ticino is Italian-speaking and still Swiss. Basel-Stadt is not France’s Grand Est. Each canton page is its own Vollzug map. Open a canton page when you already know the slice of Switzerland; stay on this hub when you need the national rules, the official locator, and the list of those units.

Cantonal JVA / établissements. Champ-Dollon (Geneva remand, overcrowded), Pöschwies (Zürich sentenced men), Thorberg (Bern), Hindelbank (women). No federal inmate search. KKJPD coordinates; it does not run a public roll. Facility articles under /switzerland/ are building guides (address, operator, how a visit is booked). They are not who-is-inside tables. If a canton has few prison guides, that is coverage on this site, not an empty prison system. Asking ‘Switzerland’ as if it were a Land. Or using a French permis at Champ-Dollon without Geneva’s own process.

Finding someone held in Switzerland

Switzerland does not publish a Google-style inmate spreadsheet. Cantonal prison administrations / KKJPD is the named official route (www.kkjpd.ch/). The cantonal Vollzugsbehörde on the papers. A Geneva arrest is Champ-Dollon geography until a transfer says otherwise — and that transfer can leave the canton. Switzerland has no national prisoner register for the public. Contact the canton that holds the person. Visiting rules differ sharply between cantons.

A US reader used to sheriff websites will type “Switzerland inmate search” and find nothing of the kind. That is the law. Court lists, Facebook groups and paid “worldwide jail” products are not Cantonal prison administrations / KKJPD. If the person was remanded overnight, reception can lag; if they were transferred out of the canton you had in mind, the old desk is the wrong door. Use the canton pages below to stop treating Bern as a synonym for the whole country.

Visits, money and staying in touch

Visiting in Switzerland is not a US-style walk-up. Cantonal rules differ sharply. ID, booking, and the prisoner’s list. A Zürich permit fails in Geneva. Money follows that canton’s instructions. Where a facility guide on this site quotes hours, they were taken from that establishment’s official page — re-check the day before you travel. This country hub will not invent a national timetable.

Dress codes, dog searches and what you may carry are house rules. Money and remote contact, where they exist, go through the official national channel — not a personal transfer to a cellmate. ZRH, GVA, BSL. Champ-Dollon is a Geneva bus, not Cornavin. Pöschwies is a Zürich-Unterland trip. French and German neighbours still need Swiss permission.

Travel, borders and the wrong-gate problem

ZRH, GVA, BSL. Champ-Dollon is a Geneva bus, not Cornavin. Pöschwies is a Zürich-Unterland trip. French and German neighbours still need Swiss permission. Print the gate address from the official prison page, not from a maps pin that only names Bern or “Swiss prison”. Neighbouring countries on this site have their own URLs; a cheaper flight into the next capital is not a visiting permit.

Asking ‘Switzerland’ as if it were a Land. Or using a French permis at Champ-Dollon without Geneva’s own process. If you only know a town name, match it to a canton first, then to a facility guide. Confusing one canton of Switzerland with another is the most common way to book the wrong visit.

Cantons of Switzerland — each on its own URL

Switzerland is not mixed with the United States or with other European countries. Below is this country’s own first-level map (Cantons). Open a unit for a longer article on how custody, visits and travel actually work there. US readers looking for a county inmate spreadsheet will not find one: Switzerland does not publish that, and neither do we.

Cantons

26 pages, written so Switzerland does not collapse into a single mixed list. This is the analogue of opening a US state after you choose the United States.

canton · AarauAargauAargauAargau sits between Zürich, Basel and Lucerne, seated in Aarau, with Baden, Brugg and the towns of the Aare. Lenzburg prison is the closed men’s establishment associated with the canton, in the town of Lenzburg, not in Aarau’s old town. It is cantonal. It does not publish names. It is not Pöschwies and it is not a Basel prison. Families who know only the big-city gates miss Lenzburg, and families who know only Lenzburg miss a remand unit somewhere else.Open this area →canton · HerisauAppenzell AusserrhodenAppenzell AusserrhodenAppenzell Ausserrhoden is the outer half-canton, seated in Herisau, not in the famous village of Appenzell. That village is Innerrhoden, a separate canton. The mix-up is so common it should be the first line of any travel note. Neither half publishes inmate names. Small eastern cantons place many sentenced people with concordat partners, often toward St. Gallen. Ask which canton holds the person before you photograph a village square.Open this area →canton · AppenzellAppenzell InnerrhodenAppenzell InnerrhodenAppenzell Innerrhoden is the inner half-canton, seated in the village of Appenzell. It is one of the smallest cantonal territories in Switzerland. It does not publish inmate names, and it does not operate a large closed prison for every sentence. Concordat placement elsewhere is ordinary. Families who arrive for the square and assume the gate is beside it are in the wrong kind of building. Ask where the person is actually held.Open this area →canton · LiestalBasel-LandschaftBasel-LandschaftBasel-Landschaft is the cantonal countryside around the city, seated in Liestal, not in Basel. It is a full canton with its own authority. It does not publish inmate names. People assume every prisoner from the region is in the city canton because that is where the hotels and the station are. Sometimes the papers say otherwise. Sometimes they place the person in Aargau, Solothurn or Bern. Liestal is the capital you should be able to say aloud before you book.Open this area →canton · BaselBasel-StadtBasel-StadtBasel-Stadt is the city canton, a few square kilometres on the Rhine, seated in Basel. Basel-Landschaft is the other half, a different canton with its capital in Liestal. Families merge them, and they merge both with Germany and France because the tram crosses borders. Prisons do not merge. There is no national Swiss roster, and a German or French police desk will not read you a Swiss one. Ask which canton holds the person: the city, the countryside canton, or somewhere else entirely.Open this area →canton · BernBernBernBern is a bilingual canton and the federal city, which makes foreigners ask the federal government where a prisoner is. The federal government does not run a national inmate index. Prisons are cantonal. Hindelbank, in the east of the canton, is the women’s prison German-speaking Switzerland treats as the default, and it is still only the right door if the papers say so. Thorberg, in Krauchthal, is a men’s closed prison in the same canton and not a wing of Hindelbank. Neither publishes names.Open this area →canton · FribourgFribourgFribourgFribourg is a bilingual canton, French and German, seated in the city of Fribourg, between Bern and Lausanne. Both languages appear in official life. That does not split the prisons into two countries, and it does not publish a roster. The German name Freiburg is the same canton, not the German city. Families who search the wrong Freiburg waste a day in the wrong country. Ask which language the holding establishment uses, and ask which canton it is.Open this area →canton · GenevaGenevaGenèveGeneva is a canton as well as a city, wrapped by France, and Champ-Dollon is its remand and local prison. The establishment is cantonal. It is chronically discussed in public and still does not publish a list of names. It is not Pöschwies in Zürich and it is not Bochuz in Vaud. International organisations in the city do not run a prison index and cannot tell you who is held. This page will not invent visiting hours.Open this area →canton · GlarusGlarusGlarusGlarus is a small valley canton south of Lake Zürich, seated in the town of Glarus. It does not publish inmate names, and it does not pretend to warehouse every sentence locally. Concordat placement in a larger partner canton is an ordinary outcome. Families who take the short train from Zürich and expect a gate in the valley may be in the wrong canton. Ask. The mountains at the end of the valley are not a prison wall.Open this area →canton · ChurGraubündenGraubündenGraubünden is the large alpine canton, seated in Chur, with German, Romansh and Italian in different valleys. St. Moritz, Davos and the Engadin are not the capital, and they are not a prison district you can guess. Custody is cantonal and unpublished. A person arrested in a resort may be held in Chur’s arrangements or in another canton entirely. Ask before you buy a holiday week and call it a visit.Open this area →canton · DelémontJuraJuraJura is the youngest Swiss canton, seated in Delémont, French-speaking, along the mountains north of Bern and beside Basel’s world. It does not publish inmate names. It does not keep every sentenced prisoner in a large local closed prison. Concordat placement in other Romandy cantons, or cooperation with neighbours, is something you confirm rather than resent. Families who look for a prison in Porrentruy or Delémont because the canton is small may be aimed at Neuchâtel, Vaud or Geneva instead.Open this area →canton · LucerneLucerneLuzernLucerne is a central Swiss canton, seated in the city of the same name, with Emmen, Kriens and the rural districts around the lake. Prisons are cantonal. There is no national roster, and a postcard of the chapel bridge is not a gate. People held on Lucerne cases may be in a local establishment or, under the central Swiss concordat, in another canton’s facility. The reverse is also true. Ask which canton holds the person this week, not which canton issued the charge.Open this area →canton · NeuchâtelNeuchâtelNeuchâtelNeuchâtel is a French-speaking canton on its own lake, seated in the city of the same name, between Vaud, Bern and the Jura. Custody is cantonal and unpublished. A watchmaking town’s fame does not create a roster. People held on local cases may be in a cantonal establishment or, under the Latin concordat, in Vaud or Geneva. German-speaking Bern is the other direction and another language. Ask which canton and which language before you book the lake.Open this area →canton · StansNidwaldenNidwaldenNidwalden is the other half-canton, seated in Stans, between the lake and the Engelberg valley. It is not Obwalden. It does not publish names. Sentenced prisoners are often placed with concordat partners rather than kept in a large local closed prison that the canton does not operate. Families who come for Engelberg’s monastery and assume the prisoner is nearby are using tourism as a filing system. Ask which canton holds the person.Open this area →canton · SarnenObwaldenObwaldenObwalden is a half-canton in central Switzerland, seated in Sarnen, beside Nidwalden and the lake. It does not publish inmate names, and it often does not hold every sentenced person locally. Concordat partners take capacity the small canton does not keep. Families hear “Unterwalden” in old texts and merge Obwalden with Nidwalden. They are separate cantons with separate authorities. A Sarnen charge can be a cell in another canton. Ask before you book the lake.Open this area →canton · SchaffhausenSchaffhausenSchaffhausenSchaffhausen is a northern canton on the Rhine, seated in the city of the same name, with territory that sits awkwardly against Germany, including the enclave geography visitors love to describe. The geography does not merge the prison systems. Swiss custody is cantonal and unpublished. German custody is a different ministry in a different country. A family that asks in Singen or Stuttgart because the map looks tangled will not be given a Swiss name. Ask the Swiss canton or the lawyer.Open this area →canton · SchwyzSchwyzSchwyzSchwyz is a central canton, seated in the town of Schwyz, with Einsiedeln, Pfäffikon and the lake shores that visitors fold into Lucerne or Zürich. Prisons are cantonal. Names are not published. A charge in Schwyz can be served in a partner canton, and a Zürich prison can hold someone whose family only ever said “Schwyz.” The town, the canton and the prison are three questions. Ask all three before you book a lakeside week.Open this area →canton · SolothurnSolothurnSolothurnSolothurn is a German-speaking canton along the Jura, seated in the town of Solothurn, with Olten as the rail junction many people actually use. Prisons are cantonal. Names are not published. Olten’s connections make it feel like a place to base a visit to anywhere in northern Switzerland. It is a junction, not a gate. Ask which establishment holds the person, and expect a concordat partner as a normal answer.Open this area →canton · St. GallenSt. GallenSt. GallenSt. Gallen is a large eastern canton, seated in the city of the same name, stretching to Rorschach on the lake, Wil, and the Rhine valley toward Sargans. It is a concordat anchor for smaller neighbours such as the Appenzell half-cantons and Glarus. That does not publish a roster, and it does not mean every eastern prisoner is in the city. Ask which establishment, and whether it is even in this canton or in Thurgau, Zürich or Graubünden.Open this area →canton · FrauenfeldThurgauThurgauThurgau is the canton on the Swiss side of Lake Constance, seated in Frauenfeld, with Kreuzlingen facing Konstanz in Germany and Romanshorn on the water. The lake border does not merge Swiss and German prisons. Custody is cantonal and unpublished. An eastern concordat may place someone in St. Gallen’s arrangements or keep them under a Thurgau establishment. The papers say which. A ferry from Germany is not a hint.Open this area →canton · BellinzonaTicinoTicinoTicino is the Italian-speaking canton, seated in Bellinzona, with Lugano and Locarno as the towns foreigners actually book. The Federal Criminal Court sits in Bellinzona, which makes people think every federal prisoner is held in the canton. They are not. The court can sit here while a canton elsewhere holds the person. Ticino’s own prisons are cantonal, Italian-speaking, and unpublished. Ask which canton has the cell, then which language the visit will use.Open this area →canton · AltdorfUriUriUri is a small mountain canton, seated in Altdorf, on the Gotthard route between central Switzerland and Ticino. It does not keep a large closed prison for every sentence, and it does not publish names. People arrested here are often held in another canton under concordat arrangements. Families who drive the Gotthard because the crime was in the canton may be going to the wrong gate. Ask where the person is held, and expect a partner canton as a normal answer.Open this area →canton · SionValaisValaisValais is the Rhône valley canton, seated in Sion, French-speaking in the lower valley and German-speaking in the upper valley, where the name Wallis is what people say. It is one canton, not two countries, and it does not publish inmate names. Zermatt and Verbier are not the capital. A resort arrest can become a Sion-side establishment or a placement in Vaud or Geneva. Ask before you buy the ski pass and call it a visit.Open this area →canton · LausanneVaudVaudVaud is the large French-speaking canton on Lake Geneva, seated in Lausanne, with Montreux, Yverdon and the Jura foothills. Bochuz, near Orbe, is the closed prison associated with the canton. It is not in Lausanne’s old town, and it is not Champ-Dollon in Geneva. Custody is cantonal, French-speaking, and unpublished. A Geneva crime and a Vaud sentence are different gates. Ask which canton holds the person.Open this area →canton · ZugZugZugZug is a small, wealthy canton on the lake, seated in the city of Zug, squeezed between Zürich, Lucerne and Schwyz. Wealth does not create a public inmate list, and the canton’s size does not mean every prisoner stays in town. Concordat placement is normal. Families who work in the city and assume the gate is near the office are often wrong. Ask which canton holds the person, then which establishment.Open this area →canton · ZürichZürichZürichZürich is the most populous canton, and its prisons are cantonal, not federal in the way families from Austria expect. Pöschwies, in Regensdorf, is the sentenced men’s prison this site groups with the canton. It is not Champ-Dollon in Geneva and it is not a national switchboard. Switzerland has no inmate roster that covers every canton. The concordat offices and the KKJPD explain coordination. They do not tell you who is in a cell. This page will not invent visiting hours.Open this area →

Prison guides in Switzerland

Each page is written for that establishment — address, how families actually locate someone, and how visits work — not a copied country intro.

Bern

Hindelbank · Prison (women)Justizvollzugsanstalt HindelbankHindelbank in Bern canton is the women’s prison German-speaking Switzerland references — cantonal Besuche, not a federal inmate index.Read the guide →

Zürich

Regensdorf · Prison (sentenced)PöschwiesPöschwies is Zurich canton’s sentenced men’s prison in Regensdorf — a Swiss-German visit desk that will not answer Geneva Champ-Dollon questions.Read the guide →

Geneva

Geneva · Prison (remand/local)Prison de la Genève — Champ-DollonChamp-Dollon is Geneva’s chronically overcrowded remand prison — cantonal custody where KKJP’s federal hub cannot tell you who is inside, only Geneva can.Read the guide →

Questions families actually ask

Is there a Swiss national inmate search?
No. Custody data stays with the canton. Call the JVA or the cantonal justice department named on the papers.
Does CurrentPrisonList list who is in jail in Switzerland today?
No. Switzerland pages are geographic and procedural guides. Switzerland has no national prisoner register for the public. Contact the canton that holds the person. Visiting rules differ sharply between cantons.
Why does Switzerland have Cantons instead of one mixed list?
Twenty-six cantons. Geneva will not answer Zürich. Ticino is Italian-speaking and still Swiss. Basel-Stadt is not France’s Grand Est. Each canton page is its own Vollzug map. Mixing those units would be the same mistake as putting Ohio inmates under California.
How do I visit a prison in Switzerland?
Identify the establishment through Cantonal prison administrations / KKJPD or the lawyer, get on the visitor list, and book that house. Cantonal rules differ sharply. ID, booking, and the prisoner’s list. A Zürich permit fails in Geneva. Money follows that canton’s instructions. Plan travel via Bern only if the letter actually names a house there — the canton pages exist because it often does not.

Other countries

Each country is a separate area of the site so US county rosters, UK prisons and European JVA / maison d’arrêt guides never share a URL.

GBUnited Kingdom13 Nations and regions · 140 prison guidesDEGermanyDeutschland16 Länder (federal states) · 10 prison guidesFRFranceFrance13 Régions · 8 prison guidesDKDenmarkDanmark5 Regions · 3 prison guidesIEIrelandÉire26 Counties · 4 prison guidesNLNetherlandsNederland12 Provinces · 3 prison guidesBEBelgiumBelgië / Belgique13 Regions and provinces · 3 prison guidesESSpainEspaña17 Autonomous communities · 3 prison guides

All countries →

Source

Confirm location, visits and hours on the official service. This site does not list who is in custody.

Official locatorCantonal prison administrations / KKJPDOpen official site →