Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

July 17, 2019

USA: what should we do about our aging prison population?

News

North America United States

Can compassionate release laws solve the problem of the nearly 200,000 people aged 55 and older who are incarcerated in America?

July 15, 2019

France: visite du quartier pour détenus radicalisés de la prison de la Santé

News

Europe Discipline Violence France

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 12, 2019

USA: NJ limits solitary confinement in prisons, hailed as "historic" criminal justice step

News

Discipline United States

New Jersey will limit the use of solitary confinement in correctional facilities and effectively ban it outright for certain people, including the young and elderly, pregnant women and members of the LGBTQ community.

July 11, 2019

Morocco: la triste situation des prisons marocaines

News

Africa Material conditions Morocco

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 11, 2019

The Salvador: l’Eglise lutte contre la violence dans les prisons

News

Central America and the Caribbean Violence El Salvador

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 11, 2019

Belgium: le Conseil central de surveillance pénitentiaire recrute 350 citoyens pour observer les prisons du pays

News

Europe Belgium

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 11, 2019

Indonesia: prison officials believe inmates are "turning gay" after sleeping next to the same ex

News

Asia Indonesia

If that’s the case, shouldn’t prisons be full of gay people, since overcrowded conditions force inmates to sleep in cramped cells?

July 10, 2019

Mexico: Piden rehabilitar a menores que salen de las cárceles

News

Central America and the Caribbean Mexico

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish

July 10, 2019

El Salvador: Gobierno e Iglesia luchan contra la violencia

News

Central America and the Caribbean Violence El Salvador

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish

July 10, 2019

Touch — 2/12

Inside Outside

North America South America Women Asia Europe Long-term prisoners

Each month, the photographer Bertrand Gaudillère creates an image or chooses one from his archives. Prison Insider sends it to a dozen participants, prisoners around the world.They are in Argentina, in the United States of America, in France, in Switzerland, in Guatemala, in Ukraine, in Colombia, i…

July 10, 2019

Taking equitable health to prisons the Malawian way

News

Africa Health Malawi

The late founding president of democratic South Africa, Nelson Mandela, once famously said: “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

July 10, 2019

Egypt: when doctors don't help: "medical negligence" in prison

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Africa Middle East Egypt

Deliberately withholding medical treatment in Egyptian prisons and elsewhere amounts to torture, according to experts.

July 10, 2019

Moroccan: plus de 100% de taux d’occupation dans 12 des 15 prisons marocaines

News

Africa Morocco

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 10, 2019

France: enquête sur la difficile gestion des radicalisés

News

Europe Discipline Religion France

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 10, 2019

Egypt: detainees trapped in ‘revolving doors’ of prison system as authorities bypass release orders

News

Africa Middle East Egypt

The Egyptian authorities’ growing trend of re-imprisoning people who have been arbitrarily detained, instead of complying with court orders to release them is an alarming signal of how decayed the country’s justice system has become, said Amnesty International.

July 9, 2019

UK: I worked in a pupil referral unit for years. The government's new "secure schools" are just a pipeline to prison

News

United Kingdom

The ease with which contracts for these youth jail schemes are being secured by for-profit organisations is dizzying. All they’ll do is preside over another disproportionately black, poor, male and disabled population

July 9, 2019

United States: dans les prisons américaines, les nouilles lyophilisées remplacent les dollars

News

North America United States

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 9, 2019

Gabon: les atroces prisons d’Ali Bongo

News

Africa Gabon

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 8, 2019

USA: a rare inside look at a private prison

News

North America United States

Reporters found weapons, drugs, and rampant violence.

July 8, 2019

France: bientôt des ordinateurs dans toutes les cellules?

News

Europe France

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

July 8, 2019

Tajikistan: food poisoning kills 14 prison inmates

News

Material conditions Tajikistan

Tajikistan has opened a criminal investigation after 14 prison inmates died of food poisoning while being transferred from Tajikistan’s northern Sogd region to prisons in Dushanbe, Norak, and Yovon in southern Tajikistan on July 7.

July 8, 2019

United States: what do people in solitary confinement want to see?

News

North America Discipline United States

Willie Sterling III imagined this: a line of people, bonded by a belief in his humanity, travelling up a hill in southern Illinois to a cross that sits at its peak. The cross was Bald Knob Cross of Peace, a colossus more than a hundred feet tall. It was made of concrete and varnished with porcelain…

July 8, 2019

USA: how electronic monitoring drives defendants into debt

News

North America Alternatives United States

Ankle bracelets are promoted as a humane alternative to jail. But private companies charge defendants hundreds of dollars a month to wear the surveillance devices. If people can’t pay, they may end up behind bars.

July 7, 2019

France: des détenus de la prison de Privas creusent un tunnel avec des pieds de chaises

News

Europe France

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French