February 2025
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
Alternatives
United Kingdom
A United Nations torture tsar has said British incarcerated people trapped on indefinite jail terms are probably “being detained arbitrarily” after The Independent revealed six in 10 are being blocked from moving to open jails.
United States: health care is key for youths getting out of prison. A new law helps them get it
News
North America
Minors
Access to legal rights
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Rehabilitation
United States
Valentino was given his birth certificate, his Social Security card, a T-shirt, and khaki pants when he was released from a Texas prison in 2019 at the age of 21. But he didn’t have health insurance, mental health medications, or access to a doctor, he said.
North America
LGBTQI
Justice
Mental health
Material conditions
United States
A Bureau of Prisons policy that called on transgender women in federal prisons to hand over any female-identifying clothing and other commissary items, like women’s razors and hair care, is on hold at at least one federal prison in Texas.
Oceania
Mental health
Facilities
Rehabilitation
New Zealand
Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, such a limited palette is being questioned for its impact on health and rehabilitation.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Nigeria
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) says over 65 per cent of incarcerated people are currently awaiting trial in correctional centers across the country. Afam Osigwe, president of the NBA, revealed this at the national executive council meeting of the association in Akure.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Activities
Social ties
United Kingdom
Women’s prisons have ‘astonishing gaps in basic decency’ and an ‘overreliance’ on physical force according to new research which examined conditions in four jails.
Europe
Minors
Health
Mental health
Activities
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
Teenagers in Feltham Young Offender Institution (YOI) were locked in their cells for as long as 22 hours a day, according to a report.
Crises
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
The prison, which has a capacity of 296, had 372 people in custody yesterday, representing 126% capacity. It has broken its own overcrowding record, with 76 person in custody currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor due to a lack of bed space.
Crises
Middle East
Death penalty
Social ties
Iran
Two incarcerated people were executed at dawn on Thursday at Isfahan Central Prison without prior notification to their families or an opportunity for final visits.
Africa
Crises
Women
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
Hundreds of women were raped and burned alive during the chaos after a Rwandan-backed rebel group entered the Congolese city of Goma. Women were attacked in their wing inside Goma’s Munzenze prison during a mass jailbreak, according to a senior UN official.
Crises
Europe
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Alternatives
United Kingdom
A record 58 people died in Scottish prisons in 2024. The total exceeded the previous record of 53 deaths, set in 2022, and sparked a debate over the causes.
Europe
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
United Kingdom
Complaints to the ombudsman in the year ending March 2024 - a period during which the Tories freed thousands of incarcerated people early to avoid running out of space—hit 4,575, the highest number since before the pandemic.
