Where are they? What are they like? Do they even exist given the low crime rate (except crimes committed by foreigners of course). I have no intention of spending any time in one but do they conform to the generally high standards of cleanliness and upkeep that characterises much of Swiss life? Or are they akin to the Hanoi Hilton, hence the low crime rate? We should be told.

We had a previous thread on this here:

Going to prison

Well, apparently they are painted pink to keep the prisoners calm.

There is one in Regensdorf and one in Biberbrugg e.g. The one in Biberbrugg is extreemly discrete. If you don't know it's a prison, you'd never guess.

Yes so one would know if the legal insurance is really that important!!!

There's a very big one in Regensdorf and a small one in the centre of Horgen, for example. There are loads of others as well.

Here's the Horgen one.

There's one in Geneva, but it's now too small.... they are building an extension to have more place to "stock" all those damn foreigners

Interesting - i was in the UK the other week and the thought popped into my head as I passed Feltham young offenders institute on the train. This is a vast, grim looking place ringed with razor wire fences. Not seen the like over here..

Sort of Ibis quality, I guess?

If they are pink, doesn't that make them a prison 'camp'?

As of 2008, Switzerland has 124 prisons according to the Catalogue of Correctional Institutions (Katalog der Einrichtungen des Freiheitsentzuges) compiled by the Federal Statistical Office

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...in_Switzerland

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/index/Ex...ml?cid=5842272

Three out of four Swiss prisoners are foreign.. Around 70 per cent of prisoners in Switzerland are not Swiss but not because foreigners commit more crimes according to a study.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Arc...ml?cid=5293728

I am no expert on prisons but I heard ,in Switzerland they are hard to get into .Its easier in Canada and USA ,Mexico ,Turkey and all South America are the best to get in

I understand going to prison in Switzerland is like being sent to your room. You get to watch satellite TV the whole day.

Ideal place to learn a foreign language

So you'd better go to prison than pay a lot for a language exchange program. ;-)

But this is not inly due to the TV, but to the guys sitting in there? ;-)

I imagine the cells like hotels...

There's one slap bang in the middle of Fribourg Old Town. Conspicuous only by the slightly higher wall and bars on all the windows, not just those on the ground floor.

Funny, most of the Swiss hotels I've stayed in feel like prisons to me -- something about how the bathrooms are always so clinical...

This one in Luzern houses all the convicted Cat A nutcases, paedophiles & murderers from central Switzerland.

I unknowingly walked down the road past the one in Regensdorf last night! (technically 2, but on Google maps it's all one big complex) Apparently it's the largest prison in Switzerland, but I didn't notice it in the night time, only the really lovely brick houses that were standing in front of it. It's literally a 1-minute walk from Regensdorf-Watt bahnhof, so I guess they tried to disguise it a little bit..