Material conditions
Europe
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Mental health
Material conditions
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Work
United Kingdom
I was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest after blocking a motorway. Six months into my incarceration, this is what I have learned.
Crises
Minors
Middle East
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Iran
A teenage girl arrested this autumn for taking photos at a government event in Ahvaz spent over three weeks in detention, including 15 days in solitary confinement, IranWire has learned.
Asia
Foreign prisoners
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
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Thailand
The ex-soldier, who has remained anonymous, has exposed the inhumane conditions he witnessed after sneaking a camera inside the jail. The 29-year-old said he was held in two police cells and a Bangkok deportation centre for 15 days.
Central America and the Caribbean
Access to legal rights
Justice
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Jamaica
Tesha Miller, the alleged leader of the Clansman Gang, is among 16 imprisoned people suing the Government over conditions at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, the country’s main prison.
Crises
Middle East
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Death penalty
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Syria
From the Raid Department that falls under the Military Security’s Branch 215—commonly referred to as the “Branch of Death”— Asharq Al-Awsat began its tour of the prisons of the ousted Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Alternatives
Switzerland
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has raised concerns about police practices and prison overcrowding in western Switzerland, citing “repeated allegations of physical mistreatment and excessive use of force” against people in custody.
Crises
Asia
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Torture
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Russia
What was once a detention centre for juveniles and women with children, Detention Centre No. 2, or SIZO-2, in Taganrog has for over two and a half years been used to detain captured Ukrainians. The facility has become notorious for inhumane conditions.
Crises
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Torture
Violence
Iran
Mohammad Davari, a prominent labor activist, has been returned to Shiraz’s Adilabad Prison, showing visible signs of torture following a 17-day detention at the Intelligence Ministry’s “Block 100” facility, according to his attorney, Fereshteh Tabanian.
Africa
Women
Health
Material conditions
Social ties
Ghana
The Volta Region branch of the Power Queens of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has urged the public to contribute vigorously to the reform of convicted people by supporting them with their basic needs.
South America
Mental health
Material conditions
Protest
Torture
Venezuela
Juan, a young man aged around 20, alleges he was physically and psychologically tortured by Venezuelan security forces after being detained in connection with the presidential elections on 28 July.
Crises
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Alternatives
United States
Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.
Culture
Europe
Justice
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Mental health
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Alternatives
Rehabilitation
In Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, life in prison resembles the outside world as much as possible. However, like any prison system, they aren’t perfect. Nordic prisons are facing some of the same challenges as prisons in the UK.
Elderly prisoners
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Suicide
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Egypt
The horrific Sednaya Prison in Syria has thrown the spotlight on the reality of Egypt’s prisons, the files of those forgotten behind bars, and the fate of the victims of torture and forced disappearance during the rule of current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
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…
Crises
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Death penalty
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Iran
Inside one of Iran’s most notorious prisons, over 2,000 incarcerated people are crammed into cells meant to hold just a few hundred. Days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, as the world recoils at images of Syria’s Seydnaya prison, Iranian survivors recognize a horror all too fami…
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Social ties
Iran
As Iran grapples with widespread gas and electricity shortages, behind prison walls, incarcerated people face a desperate struggle against the winter cold. In northern Rasht’s Lakan Prison, 163 women huddle together, their collective breath the only source of warmth in cells left dark and freezing…
Oceania
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Violence
Australia
Prison guards switched off the water to the cell of a mentally ill and dying man as punishment for his strange behaviour, joked that his repeated pleas for help were “entertaining”, and then left him unobserved to die at Silverwater jail from a treatable illness that was inexplicably missed.
North America
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
United States
Moldy mattresses, 24/7 lights and constant noise contribute to a persistent health and safety crisis in prisons and jails. The Marshall Project and Los Angeles Times have identified more than 30 lawsuits regarding sleep deprivation behind bars over the last three decades.
Africa
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Justice
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How can the complexity of information on prison conditions be made accessible and used to support change? The Prison Life Index is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration between academics and members of civil society.
Oceania
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
New Zealand
Bed capacity across the country is projected to run out in 2027 on a best-case scenario, or worst-case, in June next year.
United States: juvenile detention centers in North Carolina under scrutiny for use of isolation
News
North America
Minors
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Social ties
United States
Teenagers in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system are routinely being locked alone in their rooms for as much as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit and advocates for young people in custody.
Culture
North America
Material conditions
Facilities
Social ties
United States
Danish architecture studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen and American studio DLR Group have been selected to redesign California’s San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitation centre that will utilise influences from the Scandinavian incarceration system.
Africa
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Africa
The department of correctional services (DCS) says 66 million euros is required to refurbish the Johannesburg Sun City Prison.
The renovation project will address critical issues, including plumbing, electrical systems, and overcrowding, and will be phased across various sections of the prison.
Crises
Minors
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Israel
Thousands of Palestinians are currently deprived of their liberty by the Israeli authorities, a figure that has risen sharply in the last year. What is the current situation? Answers from the Palestinian association Addameer.