Overcrowding
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.
Who benefits from prison?
Analysis
Africa
Central America and the Caribbean
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
Prison Insider hosted a workshop at this year’s edition of Concertina on the human and social cost of prison in Haiti, Tunisia, Morocco, and France. Learn more about the key points of this discussion.
Morocco: ink flows
Testimonial
Africa
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Morocco
Hicham Mansouri is a journalist. He was arrested in 2015 on false charges and imprisoned. He shares his journey, his life in detention, and the investigation he conducted behind bars.
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
Health
Mental health
Overcrowding
United States
Another person has died in Los Angeles County jails, marking the 24th in-custody death so far this year and the 69th since the start of 2023.
Prisons in the eye of the storm
Analysis
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.
Africa
Pre-trial detention
Women
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
South Africa
The stench of faeces inside a toilet filled with waste, fly-infested and leaking cells, flooded floors, beds without mattresses, damaged infrastructure, crime and corruption is what greeted Correctional Services Minister Dr Pieter Groenewald and members of the portfolio committee on security and ju…
Asia
Justice
Overcrowding
Cambodia
The Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons (GDP) is planning to hold a forum with relevant ministries, embassies, and human rights NGOs to find a comprehensive solution to ongoing overcrowding issues in prisons, as the number of incarcerated people continues to rise.
Africa
Crises
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
In attempting to describe Makala Prison - the scene of a deadly and failed breakout this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo - two people who have been inside used the exact same word: “hell”.“Makala is not a prison, but a detention centre resembling a concentration camp, where people are sent…
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Five of the former most senior judges have intervened in the debate over the prison population crisis to urge the government to reverse the trend of locking people up for longer – declaring that ‘radical solutions’ are required to tackle the prison population crisis.
Africa
Crises
Pre-trial detention
Access to legal rights
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Congo - Kinshasa
Families of those killed in what authorities called an attempted jailbreak in Congo’s biggest prison are demanding answers from the government as activists denounce what they say are inhumane conditions in the nation’s overcrowded penitentiaries.
North America
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
United States
This latest death follows one earlier this week at the same facility, Los Angeles’s Men’s Central Jail. The proximity of these tragedies underscores the urgency for Los Angeles County to honor the commitment it made in 2021 to close the dangerous facility and stop the cycle of death plaguing its ja…
Europe
Minors
Mental health
Drugs
Protest
Overcrowding
Violence
Rehabilitation
United Kingdom
Prisons across the country are in a deep state of crisis – the extent of which is exposed by the latest statistics. Soaring rates of violence, self-harm and drug misuse have become widespread in overcrowded prisons in England and Wales. The prison population remains “within a few hundred places of…
France: Olympic Games under control
Interview
Middle East
Health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Egypt
Six detainees have died in one week at a detention centre in the al-Sharqia governorate in Egypt, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) has reported. Egyptian rights group says detainees suffered from “suffocation” due to overcrowding and poor ventilation.
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. Of the people who took their own lives, 19 (3…
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
The Inspector of Prisons has said the record levels of overcrowding in jails is “deplorable” and that he has been “sounding the alarm” of the crisis since he took up the position in August 2022.Mark Kelly also expressed grave concern at the “undesirable uptick in physical violence” the worsening ov…
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Prisons will run out of space within days, putting the public at risk and endangering prisoners and staff, the Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) has warned in a letter to the leaders of all UK political parties. The PGA, which represents 95 per cent of prison governors, says that shortly even pol…
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
MSPs have voted in favour of releasing more than 500 prisoners early to address overcrowding in Scottish jails.
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
United Kingdom
Scottish prisons are in crisis and risk breaching inmates’ human rights, according to a new official report. Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee has called on the government to carry out an urgent review of the prison system. It follows recent warnings from within the service about overcrowding and a…
Prisons on the margins of European elections
Analysis
Investigations
Europe
Access to legal rights
Justice
Overcrowding
Alternatives
The citizens of the 27 member States of the European Union will go to the polls from 6 to 9 June. What role do prison issues play in the electoral campaigns?