Access to legal rights
Europe
Access to legal rights
Drugs
United Kingdom
A former imprisoned person who died of drug poisining a day after being released should have been given a drug overdose kit, an investigation has found.
Central America and the Caribbean
Foreign prisoners
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Torture
Social ties
El Salvador
Hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent days could face long or indefinite detention in a prison system rife with human rights abuses, according to attorneys and experts on the region.
Middle East
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Death penalty
United Arab Emirates
Twenty-five Indian nationals have been awarded the death sentence in the United Arab Emirates, the Union government told Parliament. However, the judgements were yet to be implemented. In all, 49 Indians have been sentenced to death in eight different countries, the government said.
Asia
Access to legal rights
Drugs
Material conditions
Death penalty
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Indonesia
Banished from the mainland, imprisoned people in Indonesia’s notorious Nusakambangan Island await news of their fate. The prison complex is home to a number of prisons of varying levels of security. The least volatile can expect to spend their days working in the fields and carving gems.
Women bearing the weight of the law
Analysis
Africa
North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Women
Asia
Europe
LGBTQI
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Justice
Drugs
Death penalty
Violence
More and more women across the world are being imprisoned, mostly for minor, non-violent offences. What discriminatory and punitive logic is being applied? What is being done to fight back against it?
Dominican Republic: officials cram thousands of people facing no charges into overcrowded prisons
News
Central America and the Caribbean
Pre-trial detention
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Dominican Republic
They’re known as “frog men,” incarcerated people who are forced to sleep on prison floors, often next to overflowing toilets or holes in the ground that serve as one. Thousands of them are crammed into the country’s severely overcrowded prisons, some operating at seven times their capacity.
Women
Asia
Minors
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Pakistan
Punjab Home Department has taken a commendable step by amending the 125-year-old prison rules under the vision of Punjab’s chief minister for comprehensive jail reforms. According to the spokesperson, in the first phase, 138 jail rules were revised to meet modern standards.
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Social ties
Iran
An incarcerated person has died in an Iranian jail after officials denied him medical treatment and placed him in quarantine as punishment for protesting his lack of care. Hassan Damani, 33, died on February 12 in Lajvardi Prison in Iranshahr, according to human rights groups.
Europe
LGBTQI
Access to legal rights
Material conditions
Ireland
The Irish Prison Service (IPS)’s long-awaited policy guidance on the appropriate housing of trans people in prison has been delayed further, as officials struggle to identify a suitable model.
North America
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Social ties
United States
Colorado lawmakers are trying to make it a right — rather than a privilege — for people in the state’s prisons to receive visitation while incarcerated. Now, they can have their visitation privilege revoked if they violate the Department of Corrections‘ rules.
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
Alternatives
United Kingdom
A United Nations torture tsar has said British incarcerated people trapped on indefinite jail terms are probably “being detained arbitrarily” after The Independent revealed six in 10 are being blocked from moving to open jails.
United States: health care is key for youths getting out of prison. A new law helps them get it
News
North America
Minors
Access to legal rights
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Rehabilitation
United States
Valentino was given his birth certificate, his Social Security card, a T-shirt, and khaki pants when he was released from a Texas prison in 2019 at the age of 21. But he didn’t have health insurance, mental health medications, or access to a doctor, he said.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Nigeria
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) says over 65 per cent of incarcerated people are currently awaiting trial in correctional centers across the country. Afam Osigwe, president of the NBA, revealed this at the national executive council meeting of the association in Akure.
Culture
North America
Elderly prisoners
Access to legal rights
Health
Social ties
Rehabilitation
Work
United States
Following decades of mass incarceration,the proportion of older people in prison has increased since the early 1990s. Nearly a quarter of people behind bars in federal and state prisons are over age 50. That’s five times the proportion of the prison population in 1991.
North America
Women
LGBTQI
Access to legal rights
Health
Violence
United States
Among the dozens of executive orders that President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office for his second term, one targets transgender people incarcerated in the federal prison system.
North America
Access to legal rights
Justice
Violence
United States
State Sen. Julia C. Salazar has proposed a series of bills that seek to make it easier to discipline or fire correction officers who are found to have engaged in misconduct, including using excessive force, as well as to provide greater independent oversight of state prisons.
Pre-trial detention
Women
Europe
Foreign prisoners
Access to legal rights
Suicide
Luxembourg
There are 260 people, including 11 women, currently in pre-trial detention in Luxembourg, a number that “represents 46% of the total prison population,” the ministry told Contacto.
Central America and the Caribbean
Access to legal rights
Justice
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Social ties
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.
Oceania
Access to legal rights
Mental health
Facilities
Overcrowding
Australia
The Northern Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner has warned the government could be at risk of breaching an international human rights agreement on torture after closing a specialised facility for mentally ill and disabled imprisoned people.
Crises
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Justice
Violence
Israel
Currently, around 6,800 Palestinians are being held by Israel without standard trials, according to numbers provided by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Hamoked.
Crises
Middle East
Access to legal rights
Health
Suicide
Iran
A former Iranian bodybuilding champion imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison attempted suicide. The act of protest was in response to what he described as inadequate medical care for his deteriorating health conditions.
Crises
Asia
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Torture
Social ties
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.
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Access to legal rights
Justice
Torture
United Kingdom
An incarcerated person who brought a legal challenge in April 2023 alleging he had been held in solitary confinement in England for more than two years has said he remains in isolation 20 months later because the judge has not given her decision in the case.
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…