Prison as a model: administrative detention in Switzerland

From the end of the 19th century until 1981, Swiss law allowed those who didn't fit in with the norm to be locked up. For girl mothers or alcoholics, breaking the traditional pattern didn't send them to court, but could land them in Bellechasse, Hindelbank, La Valletta, Mendrisio or Uitikon in the canton of Zurich. This common administrative measure was the subject of a commission of inquiry and a landmark report published in 2019 that quantifies this outlawed way of curing society's ills through punishment.