Suicide
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Italy
There have been 24 suicides in Italy’s prisons so far this year after three imprisoned people took their own lives in jails in Avellino, Genoa and Trieste, penitentiary police union SPP said. The union said that, at this rate, last year’s record of 91 prison suicides will be broken in 2025.
Europe
Suicide
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
United Kingdom
Overcrowding is a trigger for poor performances in prisons, says a research document produced by the Institute for Government. It calls for increased education and training for imprisoned people, and the introduction of a minimum standard of provision.
Women
Europe
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
United Kingdom
A new HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on HMP Styal found that 39 women had been sent to the prison due to their “acute vulnerabilities and the absence of specialised support in the community.”
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Material conditions
Suicide
Overcrowding
Italy
Italy’s chronically packed prisons had a population of 62,132 imprisoned people in February compared to the 46.910 places available, with an average overcrowding rate of 132.4%, according to data released by the guarantors of the rights of persons deprived of their personal freedom.
Europe
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Suicide
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Malta
Malta’s prison boss does not agree with solitary confinement and would abolish it altogether if he had the power to change the law. Christopher Siegersma said that no imprisoned people are serving time in solitary confinement as he does not believe it is effective.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
United Kingdom
Prison is not a place of safety. For women especially, it is a place of chaos and trauma where vulnerable people struggle to maintain their dignity, let alone sanity.
United Kingdom: ‘I stole a mobile phone almost 20 years ago – I’ve spent half my life in prison’
News
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Mental health
Suicide
Violence
United Kingdom
A father who stole a mobile phone when he was in the grips of a drug addiction is still languishing in prison almost 20 years later under an “inhumane” indefinite jail term.
Europe
Justice
Health
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Four in ten incarcerated people who took their own lives in custody were denied adequate healthcare before their deaths, according to damning new figures exposing the scale of neglect inside Britain’s overcrowded prisons.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Social ties
United Kingdom
A lack of basic care lies behind a surge in the rate of self-harm in women’s prisons, according to a thematic report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor. In the report, Taylor describes a service that is failing and describes the findings as “deeply depressing”.
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.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Suicide
Activities
Social ties
United Kingdom
Women’s prisons have ‘astonishing gaps in basic decency’ and an ‘overreliance’ on physical force according to new research which examined conditions in four jails.
Women
Europe
Foreign prisoners
Justice
Health
Drugs
Material conditions
Suicide
Violence
Malta
Alex Dalli’s prison degraded incarcerated people and subjected them to pervasive intimidation and fear, with one person describing the place as a ‘factory of evil’, a new Ombudsman investigation has found.
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.
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.
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.
United States: juvenile detention centers in North Carolina under scrutiny for use of isolation
News
North America
Minors
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Social ties
United States
Teenagers in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system are routinely being locked alone in their rooms for as much as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit and advocates for young people in custody.
Europe
Material conditions
Suicide
Overcrowding
Italy
“This is a high figure compared to the same month of July in 2023 and 2022, when 34 were recorded (with an increase of 16 deaths)” read the guarantor’s report. “There are 48 men and 2 women, 27 are Italian and 23 foreigners, from 14 different countries.
"Making every death a public affair"
Interview
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Suicide
Deaths occurring in prison are frequent, but often kept quiet. Civil society groups are joining forces to draw attention, advocate for greater transparency and raise awareness of prison deaths. Discussion with two groups: one in France, the other in Switzerland.
Europe
Long-term prisoners
Justice
Suicide
Torture
United Kingdom
Nearly 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales remain in jail under Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences today, and many others who have been released face the ongoing prospect of immediate recall to prison.
Türkiye: prisons in 2024
Analysis
Pre-trial detention
Women
Europe
Minors
Foreign prisoners
LGBTQI
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Suicide
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Alternatives
Work
Turkey
All there is to know about Turkish prisons in 2024. Key figures, life in detention, references: discover all the data gathered by Prison Insider.
Côte d'Ivoire: prisons in 2025
Analysis
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Minors
Foreign prisoners
LGBTQI
Long-term prisoners
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Suicide
Torture
Activities
Social ties
Alternatives
Work
Côte d’Ivoire
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French
Asia
Mental health
Suicide
Overcrowding
Religion
India
By December 2022, India’s prisons were filled to 131% of capacity, up one percentage point from 2021. This is despite a campaign in July last year to identify undertrial prisoners eligible for release, and the country adding 11 prisons since 2021.