Zurich boosts use of community service instead of jail
Monday 5th October 2026 on 06:30 in
Switzerland
More people in the canton of Zurich are working off unpaid fines through community service rather than serving time in prison, SRF reports. A canton-run information centre has helped nearly 1,400 people access the option over the past year.
The canton took over the Bussen-Infopoint in September 2025, after a foundation had run it on the canton’s behalf. Its manager, Désirée Weber Renz, said the centre had met its goals by making information easier to access and connecting people with work placements more quickly. Leaflets in plain language have also helped, she said.
The centre received 1,388 applications after the takeover, and almost all were approved. About 80 percent of placements are completed successfully. The canton says it saves 240 Swiss francs for each day a person serves their sentence through community service instead of in prison.
People are placed in accessible jobs such as groundskeeping, recycling, simple workshop tasks and kitchen work. The centre currently works with about 250 organisations and businesses, allowing it to take applicants’ interests and abilities into account.
One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told SRF last year that she was grateful for the chance to work off her fines by washing dishes at Zurich’s Triemli City Hospital. She completed 480 hours of community service, equivalent to about three months. Her fines followed traffic offences and travelling on a tram without a ticket.
Community service has been an option in Switzerland for years, but its use nationwide fell by about a third from 2019. The canton says the number of people using the option in Zurich has risen by about 40 percent since it began running the information centre.
Community service is an enforcement option, not a sentence imposed by a court. People must apply to serve fines, monetary penalties or prison sentences of up to six months this way. The work is unpaid, and four hours of service count as one day of a replacement prison sentence, a prison sentence or a daily monetary penalty. If a placement has to be stopped, the person must serve the remaining sentence in prison.