Mental health
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
United Kingdom
England and Wales are two constituent countries of the United Kingdom. While their health, justice and prison policies fall under common legislation, their prison health services differ.
Switzerland: walling up madness
Analysis
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Switzerland
In Switzerland, people declared not criminally responsible are subject to therapeutic measures. In 2018, there were nearly 960 people subject to therapeutic measures. Nearly 60% of people subject to in-patient treatment are placed in prison.
Germany: walling up madness
Analysis
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Germany
Germany is a federal republic divided into 16 Länder. The Ministry of Justice oversees prison health care. Federal law does not provide for any mental health care in prison. The Länder implement treatment measures. Significant variations have been observed from one territory and facility to another…
France: walling up madness
Analysis
Europe
Access to legal rights
Discipline
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
France
France has 187 prisons. Since 1994, prison health care falls under the authority of the Ministry of Health. Prison mental healthcare was the subject of a major reform in 2002.
Walling up madness
Analysis
Thematic paper
Europe
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Suicide
More than 40 % of prisoners in Italy suffer from at least one mental disorder, about 30% in Spain, 35% in England, and 60% in the Netherlands. Does prison make you go mad? This is no doubt true for some. Prison Insider provides an overview of practices in eight countries.
Sunny Jacobs: Life Beyond
Testimonial
North America
Mental health
Death penalty
Religion
United States
How can you escape prison with your mind? Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death and spent seventeen years in detention for a crime she did not commit. She tells Prison Insider how yoga, meditation and prayer helped her find freedom behind prison walls.
Sunny Jacobs: Life Inside
Testimonial
North America
Mental health
Material conditions
Death penalty
Activities
United States
What is daily life on death row like? Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death and spent seventeen years in detention for a crime she did not commit. She tells Prison Insider about her detention conditions and the burden of complete isolation.
Belgium: prison within prison
Interview
Europe
Discipline
Mental health
Material conditions
Belgium
When can someone be sent to solitary confinement? A new report strongly criticises the use of solitary confinement and the conditions of detention observed there. Interview.
Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Mental health
Switzerland
Psychiatric expertise has grown in the last few years, especially in assessing recidivism risk. Can risk really be predicted? Interview.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Suicide
France
Fresnes, Fleury-Mérogis, la Santé: for 25 years, Cyrille Canetti witnessed the shift of prison psychiatry. (Critical) interview about psychiatry and prison.
Coronavirus
Pre-trial detention
Minors
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
France
The Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty feels ‘useful everywhere’. One year after taking office, Dominique Simonnot responds to our questions in a candid interview.
Years in the Row
Analysis
Thematic paper
Africa
Women
Asia
Europe
Minors
Foreign prisoners
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Death penalty
Torture
Some people fear death every morning. Others are sentenced to death in countries that no longer carry out executions. At least 483 executions were documented in 2020. Prison Insider publishes an overview of practices in nine countries that have not abolished the death penalty.
United States: inadequate mental health treatment
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
United States
How the prison system respond to the needs of mentally ill prisoners?
Austria: Final destination, Göllersdorf
Investigations
Coronavirus
Europe
Health
Mental health
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Austria
In a tiny village in Lower Austria lies one of the country’s “special institutions for mentally abnormal, unsound offenders”. Journalist Sarah Yolanda Koss dives into the everyday life of those imprisoned in the Göllersdorfer castle.
España: La realidad invisible de los presos con trastornos mentales: "Prisión y salud mental son antagónicos"
News
Europe
Mental health
Spain
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
Suisse : Hans Wolff, “Avec la pandémie, le risque suicidaire a explosé en prison“
News
Coronavirus
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Switzerland
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
España: Navarra implantará en la cárcel de Pamplona programas sobre salud mental e igualdad de género
News
Women
Europe
Mental health
Spain
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
Coronavirus
South America
Mental health
Social ties
Brazil
Realities on the ground are discussed by Rafael Godoi, a sociologist and researcher at Rio’s Universidade Federal (UFRJ), and Alessandra Félix, an activist from Brazil’s north-eastern state of Ceará.
España: la Comunitat tendrá el mayor psiquiátrico penitenciario de España, con 500 internos
News
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Spain
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: addressing the structural inequalities underlying a failing prison health system
Analysis
Opinion
North America
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Suicide
United States
ICPR and Prison Insider asked several experts worldwide to share their insights in the framework of the project ‘Understanding and reducing the use of imprisonment in 10 countries’. Homer Venters is a physician and epidemiologist working at the intersection of incarceration, health and human rights…