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Volunteers line up to be locked up

Friday, 11 February 2022 06:30

How many people would choose to go to prison? Well, around 700 it seems.

Ahead of the official opening of a new prison in canton Zurich, authorities want to test the facilities under the most realistic conditions as possible and are calling for volunteers to spend 4 days locked up. 

Those who signed up will be asked to report to the jail in the middle of March. They will live like real prisoners. They won’t be allowed to have phone or computers, they’ll eat prison food and they’ll be searched on entering – some will undergo a full strip search, but that part the volunteers can opt out of. 

The prison is designed to hold those in pre-trial detention – it has space for 241 inmates. 

It will open for real in April. 

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