The number of inmates in Swiss prisons swelled to their second-highest levels in a decade in 2009.
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There were 6,084 people in prison in September, 59 per cent of whom were serving a prison sentence and 31 per cent were in pre-trial detention. Another ten per cent were in detention for expulsion and extradition or were being held for other reasons.
Prisons in French- and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland were 100 per cent full while across the whole country, the occupancy rate rose by five per cent to 91 per cent compared with 2008.
Annual checks of inmate numbers in the country’s 114 prisons are carried out every September in Switzerland.
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New prison doesn’t ease pressure on Swiss jail
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In January Geneva authorities opened La Brenaz, a modern SFr18-million ($17.3 million) prison on land adjacent to Champ-Dollon, designed to help ease the situation at the neighbouring facility. Overcrowding has become chronic at Champ-Dollon. Built in 1977 for 270 detainees, the prison currently holds 450. Campaigners say the overcrowding has obvious consequences for detainees’ living…
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The new facility would hold a maximum of 500 detainees and could open in 2015 near Champ-Dollon, Switzerland’s most overcrowded prison, which was built for 270 detainees in 1977 and currently holds over 500. “Overcrowding at Champ-Dollon poses problems in terms of detention conditions and work for the prison guards, not forgetting internal security problems,”…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.