Overcrowding
Culture
Europe
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Activities
Social ties
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.
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…
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.
Africa
Women
Minors
Access to legal rights
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Nigeria
Prison Fellowship Nigeria has officially launched its Restorative Justice, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration Project in Jos, the Plateau state capital. The initiative, designed to improve the criminal justice system through restorative practices, will span eight states.
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.
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.
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Middle East
Justice
Overcrowding
Lebanon
One of the collateral effects of the ongoing war in Lebanon has been the worsening of prison overcrowding, now exceeding 300 percent of capacity. Lebanon’s acting Public Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar issued a directive to expedite the release process for individuals held in pretrial detention.
Who benefits from prison?
Analysis
Africa
Central America and the Caribbean
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
Prison Insider hosted a workshop at this year’s edition of Concertina on the human and social cost of prison in Haiti, Tunisia, Morocco, and France. Learn more about the key points of this discussion.
Morocco: ink flows
Testimonial
Africa
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Morocco
Hicham Mansouri is a journalist. He was arrested in 2015 on false charges and imprisoned. He shares his journey, his life in detention, and the investigation he conducted behind bars.
Africa
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Africa
Overcrowding, ageing and creaking infrastructure and shortage of staff were some of the problems witnessed by members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on correctional services during a visit to some Gauteng prisons this week.
Crises
North America
Health
Mental health
Overcrowding
United States
Another person has died in Los Angeles County jails, marking the 24th in-custody death so far this year and the 69th since the start of 2023.
Prisons in the eye of the storm
Analysis
Thematic paper
Crises
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Prisons, many of which are old and located in vulnerable areas, are being severely affected by climate change. What are prison administrations doing in response to these disasters? Overview.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Africa
The is the harsh reality what wardens and staff told the delegation they were faced with on a daily basis, often having to man over 200 remand imprisoned people awaiting trial. There are no windows or electrical sockets, beds or mattress or lights in cells they were housed in.
Asia
Justice
Overcrowding
Cambodia
The Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons (GDP) is planning to hold a forum with relevant ministries, embassies, and human rights NGOs to find a comprehensive solution to ongoing overcrowding issues in prisons, as the number of incarcerated people continues to rise.
Africa
Crises
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
In attempting to describe Makala Prison - the scene of a deadly and failed breakout in the Democratic Republic of Congo - two people who have been inside used the exact same word: “hell”.“Makala is not a prison, but a detention centre resembling a concentration camp, where people are sent to die”.
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Five of the former most senior judges have intervened in the debate over the prison population crisis to urge the government to reverse the trend of locking people up for longer – declaring that ‘radical solutions’ are required to tackle the prison population crisis.
Africa
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
Families of those killed in what authorities called an attempted jailbreak in Congo’s biggest prison are demanding answers from the government as activists denounce what they say are inhumane conditions in the nation’s overcrowded penitentiaries.
North America
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
United States
This latest death follows one earlier this week at the same facility, Los Angeles’s Men’s Central Jail. The proximity of these tragedies underscores the urgency for Los Angeles County to honor the commitment it made in 2021 to close the facility and stop the cycle of death plaguing its jails.