Corrections and Rehabilitation
Corrections and Rehabilitation is responsible for the administration of the various forms of custodial sentences and non-custodial measures. On this page, you can learn everything about Corrections and Rehabilitation – from its organizational structure to interesting facts and figures.
Table of contents
About us
Corrections and Rehabilitation (JuWe, short for German «Justizvollzug und Wiedereingliederung») is part of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs of the Canton of Zurich and employs around 850 people. We execute court-ordered prison sentences and non-custodial measures and do legal social work. We are also responsible for pre-trial and preventive detention in order to protect ongoing proceedings.
Our employees work in some 40 different fields, supporting and facilitating the reintegration of thousands of delinquents and making an important contribution to public safety.
What we do
JuWe is responsible for the administration of the various forms of custodial sentences and non-custodial measures.
JuWe has a dual purpose:
- As a corrections authority, the Probation and Corrections Services are in charge of the execution of the various sanctions, admitting convicts to the respective correctional facilities in Zurich or other cantons, realizing correctional programmes, and providing probation assistance.
- As correctional facilities, the Zurich remand centres, the Zurich prisons, the Pöschwies Correctional Facility and the Centre for Correctional Measures Uitikon (MZU Uitikon, prison for adolescents) take in convicts admitted by the prosecution and corrections authorities of the Canton of Zurich or other cantons.
JuWe is involved in all phases of criminal justice and fulfils different tasks.
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- Executing pre-trial detention (anticipatory execution of a sentence and/or measure can already be applied during pre-trial detention).
- Conducting learning programmes.
- Execution of preventive detention and anticipatory execution of sentences and measures.
- Suspended custodial sentences: probation assistance, supervision of conduct orders, conducting learning programmes.
- Partially suspended custodial sentences and unsuspended custodial sentences: execution of the sanction in the form of semi-detention, sentence in an open or secure regime, community service, and electronic monitoring.
- Therapeutic measures: enforcement of outpatient or inpatient measures and indefinite incarceration sentences in the appropriate institution or with the appropriate therapist.
- After being released from prison or reaching the end of the ordered measures and until the end of the probation period: probation assistance, supervision of compliance with the terms of probation.
- Enforcement of alternative custodial sentences as a consequence of culpably not paying fines and monetary penalties.
In addition to its tasks in the context of criminal justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation also enforces administrative detention under the Law on Foreign Nationals on behalf of the Migration Office.
Guiding principles
In fulfilling our mission, we are guided as an overall organization by the following guiding principles:
- We are committed to doing work that is important and meaningful to society while fulfilling a legal mandate.
- We perform our work in an area of tension between a wide variety of expectations and ideas.
- We perceive ourselves as pacemakers in the application and in the development of new procedures and methods for relapse prevention.
- Our reference model is the learning organization; we offer interesting jobs and an atmosphere that allows skills to flourish.

Departments
The head official plus the management («GL», short for German «Geschäftsleitung») depend in various ways on expertise in order to meet their management duties. The departments of the management thus take on important cross-sectional tasks within the office and are at the disposal of the head official, the GL, all correctional facilities and services as well as of external work partners and interested third-parties.
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The head of Corrections and Rehabilitation (JuWe, short for German Justizvollzug und Wiedereingliederung) is responsible for overall governance and management of the office and its duties as well as representing the office outwardly in all substantial matters.
The management (GL) consists of a head official and the respective heads of all main departments and departments. It is responsible for all cross-section tasks and processes plus for the quality development and management of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It also supports and advises the head of office in governing and managing the office.
The Health and Contract Division reports to the head of the office. As the central coordination and contact point, the department deals with all issues relating to health and contracts. In addition, the department ensures high-quality healthcare for the inmates, records key figures in the healthcare sector and evaluates externally acquired medical services.
The administration of the head of office and heads of main departments supports the respective heads of all main departments in all administrative tasks. The assistance of the head of office is responsible for the statement of the minutes in all executive board meetings.
The assistant to the heads of main departments exonerates the head of department in all of his or her diverse functions. This includes the departments Law, HR, Finances, Controlling and Logistics, Investments and Development Focus, and Communications. The administration office also organises and supervises various business occasions and is point of contact for external and internal callers.
The Finances, Controlling and Logistics department is partner of head of office and management, of the institutions, the government, the head management of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs and the finance department for all issues regarding finances, such as planning, reporting, annual accounts, and indicators. In more detail, here are the respective tasks:
- Provides management information and decision-making tools with purposeful evaluations and controlling processes for the professional, organisational, and financial development of the office.
- Keeps an efficient financial system and accounting.
- Supports internal projects contributing to the optimisation of the value flows and the management of digital efficiency.
- Reclaims all health costs attributed to JuWe for the supervision of clients from health insurances and social welfare offices.
- Welcomes and supervises clients, visitors, and suppliers professionally and provides information on the phone in a competent way.
- Coordinates and takes responsibility for procurement, disposal, and storage plus the security and infrastructure of the office building.
- Supports heads of main departments and departments in various administrative chores.
The Human Resources (HR) department carries out central tasks inside JuWe. It is responsible for implementing the personnel strategy that derives from the office’s strategies and goals.
HR has the following functions:
- Is partner of head of office and management, of institutions, the government, the head management of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs, and the finance department for all issues concerning the HR life cycle inside the JuWe.
- Develops topics regarding the HR life cycle and is in charge of the personnel controlling.
- Advises managers and staff members in all things HR.
- Makes sure that JuWe can acquire the talents needed.
- Guarantees the administrative flows of personnel processes.
- Provides support for change management.
The Law department is responsible for all legal matters that need to be worked on or clarified within the head office and cannot be attributed to any other main department. The department is point of contact for all legal matters concerning corrections, both within the office and externally.
It is mainly responsible for the following tasks:
- Drafting of or helping with changes in laws and regulations in the fields of criminal justice, establishing house regulations, internally used regulations and contracts, etc.
- written handling of legal questions, securing knowledge, and quality development
- consultancy and decision-making support for main departments
- collaboration in concepts and projects, development of consultation processes for the head management of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs in parliamentary motions and the preparation of decisions by the cantonal government
- representing the office in appeal procedures in front of all authorities (including Ombud and liability cases).
Publications
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The JuWe-Essenz is the framework for our work and complements our legal and professional standards and regulations. It exists to facilitate the work of us, the employees, and guide us in our everyday decision-making.
For readers from outside JuWe, the JuWe-Essenz is there to explain how we think and work. It also provides orientation to applicants looking to work with us.
Facts & Figures
JuWe gathers and processes numerous figures and indicators for various different purposes. On the one hand, the statistics serve the internal regulation of quality and performance. On the other hand, information about the execution of penal sanctions and justice should be made available to the interested public and other external parties.
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The «Zahlenspiegel» (annual report of key figures) contains the most important figures and statistical data of JuWe and its institutions and services.
For the detailed operational information of the Pöschwies Correctional Facility, please refer to its annual reports.
More detailed information on the financial development of JuWe (KEF, budget, financial statement) can be found in the respective documents on the website of the Finance Administration of the Canton of Zurich.
The Eastern Switzerland Corrections Concordat (in German: Ostschweizer Strafvollzugskonkordat), Commission of the Eastern Switzerland Corrections Concordat responsible for prisons and the execution of sentences, sets the rates for room and board at the correctional facilities.
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Contact
P.O. Box
8090 Zürich
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