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2023 was a productive year for Prison Insider, with new country profiles, new and exclusive thematic papers, the publication of a book, the continuation of our podcast and so much more. We hope that 2024 will be just as productive, and that’s why we need your help!

Prison Insider publishes country profiles based on factual, sourced and up-to-date information. These profiles give an overview of criminal policy, their implementation and prevailing practices.

Over 150,000 people were held prisoner in South African prisons in 2022. That same year, at least 336,000 people were held in Turkish facilities. In both Türkiye and South Africa, prisons are overcrowded, and certain categories of the population are more likely to be targeted with incarceration. Are prisoners’ rights respected? The Information team is working closely with local associations and people connected to prisons to shed light on the prison conditions in these two countries. The country profile for South Africa was published in late November; Türkiye’s will be published in early 2024.

Prison Insider offers the chance to compare the prison systems in different countries to question their practices. Our thematic papers focus on the specific aspects of prisoners’ daily lives.

States often respond to undesirable behaviour with incarceration. In many countries, criminal law and prisons are used to target marginalised people who do not conform to social norms or who speak out against injustice. Prison Insider explores the experiences of different civil society organisations, formerly incarcerated people, individuals with research backgrounds and those who take political action for the decriminalisation of poverty, social status or militant activism. The thematic paper Caught in the spiral is one of the current key projects of the Prison Insider Comparison team.

The Prison Life Index is designed to be the first composite index for assessing state prison policies, from rule-making to implementation. The index is made from the main legal instruments on imprisonment.

First-hand reports: testimonials convey voices that are often silenced. Prison Insider welcomes stories of resistance and provides a venue for prisoners and loved ones to express their sadness and share their joys.

Coming up:

InsideOutside promises a universal and timeless telling of the deprivation of freedom. It came from the particular belief that prisoners, regardless of where they are incarcerated, the length of their sentence, gender, age, and the physical conditions of their prison environment, share the same experience: the impairment of their senses through the prolonged deprivation of freedom. A book will bring together these testimonials and will be published this year.

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