Facilities
Asia
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Protest
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Indonesia
President Prabowo Subianto’s pledge to construct a remote island prison for corrupt officials has been met with scepticism from experts, who argued that deeper structural reforms of the prison system were needed to address chronic overcrowding and underfunding.
Türkiye: broken spirits
Testimonial
North America
Facilities
Rehabilitation
United States
The Bellingham Reentry Center has been serving as a transition house for incarcerated people finishing up the last bit of their prison sentence since 1976, and since 1981 at its Garden Street address. The facility is the only reentry center north of Seattle.
Europe
Justice
Health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
The governor of Barlinnie says he would “struggle” to survive life inside his own overcrowded prison. Michael Stoney described Scotland’s largest jail as a “pressure cooker” and said new early release laws were necessary for staff and incarcerated people.
Oceania
Mental health
Facilities
Rehabilitation
New Zealand
Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, such a limited palette is being questioned for its impact on health and rehabilitation.
Crises
Oceania
Justice
Facilities
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Australia
Incarceration is a “common sense” policy, despite fuelling cycles of intergenerational poverty, trauma, social exclusion and criminalisation. Instead of governments racing to incarcerate, they could be investing in the social support systems that are needed to curb the prison crisis.
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.
Crises
Middle East
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Death penalty
Torture
Social ties
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.
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.
Women
Europe
Facilities
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Some prisons were still full even after the Government’s SDS40 early release scheme saw around 3,000 imprisoned people go home before their release dates, according to Ministry of Justice data.
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.
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.
Crises
Women
Minors
Middle East
Facilities
Death penalty
Torture
Violence
Social ties
Syria
The Syrian civil defence group known as the White Helmets says it is investigating reports from survivors of the country’s notorious Saydnaya prison that people are being detained in hidden underground cells.
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.
Women
Europe
Facilities
Rehabilitation
Malta
A house is to be set up in Marsaxlokk to prepare incarcerated women for reintegration into society as they approach the end of their custodial term. The facility is being prepared by the Home Affairs Ministry, the Prisons Agency and the RISe Foundation, which will manage it.
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.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Drugs
Facilities
Alternatives
Ireland
More investment is needed to better support people struggling with addiction, poverty, and trauma to reduce Ireland’s prison population, a general election hustings by the Irish Prison Reform Trust (IPRT) has heard.
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.
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
Facilities
United States
Manatee county jail, which has 1,200 incarcerated people and is located on the south-east side of Tampa Bay, in the path of the hurricane that was roaring towards it across the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, will not be evacuating, a representative of the jail told Newsweek on Tuesday.
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.
Prisons in transition
Analysis
Crises
North America
Europe
Oceania
Facilities
Activities
Rehabilitation
Work
The climate is changing and the environment is deteriorating. Prison administrations are being forced to radically review the way they operate. How are they doing so far? Panorama.