Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

March 22, 2025

India: National Prison Conference calls for urgent reforms, stresses need for psychologists in prisons

News

Asia Mental health Rehabilitation India

The first National Prison Conference, organised by the Prison World Organisation, concluded on March 21 with an emphasis on the urgent need for psychologists and social workers in India’s prisons.

February 1, 2025

India: 'incarcerated person can't be denied access to basic facilities', Madras High Court

News

Asia Justice Health Material conditions India

An incarcerated person cannot be denied access to minimal facilities required to deal with their physical condition which hampers their daily life, such as using an Indian toilet or sleeping on the floor, said the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

December 20, 2024

India: imprisoned people’s clandestine efforts to make heaters in Delhi’s harsh winter

News

Asia Health Material conditions Overcrowding India

As the Capital reels under biting cold conditions, Delhi prisons officials have suddenly recorded a spike in the recovery of metallic items — wires, coils, nails — from incarcerated people. Prison officials say that they are using these items to make improvised electric equipment to heat water, foo…

November 26, 2024

India: education behind bars. Breaking chains, building economies!

News

Culture Asia Overcrowding Social ties Rehabilitation Work India

While India has made strides in prison reforms, education for prisoners remains an area with significant potential. The National Policy on Prison Reforms 2017 emphasizes the importance of education and skill development within prisons.

October 3, 2024

India: from segregation to labour, Manu’s caste law governs the Indian prison system

News

Asia Justice India

Caste-based labour is sanctioned in the prison manuals of many states. These jail manuals mention every activity in detail – from the measurement of food and space per incarcerated individual to punishments for the “disorderly ones”.

August 12, 2024

India: can e-Prison module decongest jails? Supreme Court explores feasibility

News

Asia Justice Overcrowding India

Overcrowding of prisons is a long-standing problem with Indian jails. But suo motu case in the Supreme Court raises hopes of addressing the issue with the help of technology.

July 11, 2024

India: "very disturbing’", Supreme Court on state prison manuals encouraging caste discrimination

News

Asia Justice Work India

The remark came in response to a plea contending “rampant practice of caste-based division of labour, segregation and discrimination” in Indian jails.

July 9, 2024

India: computer coaching centre inaugurated in Salem Central Prison

News

Asia Activities Rehabilitation India

The Department of Prisons and Correctional Services, as part of its initiative to implement schemes towards rehabilitation of prisoners, opened a computer coaching centre at Salem Central Prison on Tuesday.

July 5, 2024

India: Supreme Court seeks reply from states and UTs over ‘inhuman’ conditions in prisons

News

Asia Justice India

The Supreme Court asked states and Union Territories to file a detailed reply addressing the inhuman conditions in prisons. The apex court has already taken cognizance of the conditions in 1,382 prisons across the country, remarking that the problems plaguing jails continue to persist.

April 14, 2024

India: can prisoners vote?

News

Asia Access to legal rights India

The prisoners’ right to vote has been a subject of debate for long. Some officials and legal experts say people in preventive detention are allowed to vote, and that undertrials could avail themselves of bail to exercise their right to franchise.

February 23, 2024

India: the hidden scandal of rape in prisons

News

Women Asia Torture Violence India

Female prisoners are ‘supplied’ to male inmates of West Bengal jails, sexual abuse is commonplace and hundreds of children are born in prison. But the women are too scared to speak out.

February 9, 2024

India: women getting pregnant in West Bengal prisons, 196 babies born

News

Women Asia Justice Health India

Calcutta High Court raises concern over prison reforms after amicus curiae’s submission reveals shocking rise in prison pregnancies.

January 20, 2024

India: making Maharashtra jails more liveable

News

Asia Material conditions Work India

To control the spread of skin infections and communicable diseases in Maharashtra’s overcrowded prisons, washing machines are being inducted for prisoners to do their clothes and bedding.

January 1, 2024

India: Telangana must announce a humane prison reform policy

News

Asia Justice Material conditions Rehabilitation India

The Telangana Congress government should review prison practices for a fair and transparent system that promotes prisoners’ reintegration.

December 29, 2023

India: right to life includes convict’s right to procreate

News

Asia Access to legal rights Justice Social ties India

The right to life includes a convict’s right to procreate, the Delhi High Court has held while granting a four-week parole to a 41-year-old murder convict serving life term so that he could have a child with his wife aged 38.

December 15, 2023

India: despite campaign, the country saw number of prisoners increase in 2022

News

Asia Mental health Suicide Overcrowding Religion India

By December 2022, India’s prisons were filled to 131% of capacity, up one percentage point from 2021. This is despite a campaign in July last year to identify undertrial prisoners eligible for release, and the country adding 11 prisons since 2021.

December 9, 2023

India: Delhi, U'khand jails filled with twice the capacity of inmates

News

Asia Minors Material conditions Overcrowding India

Despite several directions from the Supreme Court on the subhuman conditions in prisons across the country, jails continue to remain in a miserable condition. The latest figures show that Delhi and Uttarakhand have the worst situation, with almost twice the capacity of inmates in cells.

October 30, 2023

India: how prisons struggle with mental health

News

Asia Access to legal rights Health Mental health Facilities India

Poor facilities in prisons & restricted healthcare access can lead to inmates suffering from bad mental health.

October 22, 2023

India: Parliamentary panel recommends GPS trackers to reduce overcrowding

News

Asia Justice Overcrowding Alternatives India

The panel noted that overcrowding and delayed justice has led to a series of consequences for both the prisoners and the criminal justice system.

September 29, 2023

India: denied basic facilities, women prisoners impacted far worse than men

News

Women Asia Material conditions India

On August 29, the Supreme Court sought the views of the Centre and the states on the Justice Amitava Roy Committee report submitted on December 27, 2022, underlining that the correctional justice system is “evidently gender exclusionary”.

July 27, 2023

India: forest-dwelling communities in the crosshairs

Interview

Asia Access to legal rights Justice India

In 1972, the Wildlife Protection Act was established to protect wildlife in India. It has led, however, to the criminalisation of an already marginalised part of the population: the forest-dwelling communities. The CPA project told us what this means in practice.

July 27, 2023

India: high prevalence of skin disease among prison inmates

News

Asia Health India

A screening camp conducted by the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists, and Leprologists (IADVL), Kerala branch, at 10 prisons in the State has revealed that about 30% of the inmates having skin diseases had fungal infections.

July 24, 2023

India: meet the social workers helping prisoners who languish in jail despite getting bail

News

Asia Justice Rehabilitation India

“Most of the prisoners whom we deal with are people who don’t have money or contacts in high places. We try to help them access their rights.”

June 22, 2023

India: UP prisons to be known as "reform homes"

News

Asia Material conditions Rehabilitation India

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while reviewing the condition of prisons in a high-level meeting on Thursday, gave important guidelines towards prison reform.He expressed the need to establish prisons as ‘Sudhaar Grah’ (Reform Homes) and issued instructions regarding the preparation o…