Featured Blog
In this blog, Gustav Tallving, Executive Director of EuroPris, explores a key issue affecting prison systems across Europe and beyond: the role and challenges faced by prison staff.
6th November 2025
In this expert blog for Penal Reform International, Dr Marion Vannier and Dr Helen Gair from the University of Manchester explore how hope is imagined, experienced and transformed within the context of life imprisonment.
5th June 2025
The prevalence of mental health conditions among individuals in contact with criminal justice systems is disproportionately high, when compared to the general population. Reductions in community mental health services, coupled with limited capacities within prison and probation services make the provision of mental health support to individuals under supervision a major challenge. In this blog […]
31st January 2023
In the fourth blog of our series marking the tenth anniversary of the UN Bangkok Rules, Laura Ann Douglas examines extreme sentencing of women - what is driving the increase, what impact it has on the women serving these sentences, and how the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and its partners are working with women who have served extreme sentences to advocate for healing-centered justice.
31st March 2021
Distribution of Covid-19 vaccines should be guided by evidence and based on the principle of harm reduction. In this blog, experts from the University of Oxford consider why prison populations and staff should be prioritised in national vaccination programmes, what is happening so far and the challenges to their inclusion in some places. Prisons have […]
18th February 2021
In this expert blog, Anju Anna John considers menstrual hygiene provision for women in prison and interventions to assess needs, raise awareness of women’s entitlements and best practices, and improve access to sanitary products in places of detention. This is the third blog in PRI’s latest series marking ten years of the UN Bangkok Rules. […]
16th February 2021
Over 240,000 people in prison in 110 countries have tested positive for COVID-19 to-date. Seven months after the pandemic was declared, many detention facilities around the world are still struggling to prevent and respond to outbreaks of the virus. In this expert blog, as part of PRI’s series exploring trends in Global Prison Trends 2020, […]
15th October 2020
Prisons and other detention facilities face a whole host of emergencies from environmental and technological hazards, such as tornados or earthquakes. In this expert blog for PRI, as part of our Global Prison Trends series, J. Carlee Purdum, an expert on hazards, disasters and prisons, reflects on how plans need to be developed and adapted […]
29th September 2020
La pandémie de la COVID-19 continue de sévir à travers le monde et aucun pays n’est épargné. En Afrique, son impact varie d’un pays à un autre et les pays en situation post-conflit en sont durement éprouvés. C’est le cas de la République centrafricaine, pays en phase de reconstruction et de stabilisation avec la présence […]
25th August 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world and no country is being spared. In Africa, the impact of the virus varies from one country to another but post-conflict countries have been severely hit. In Central African Republic, where PRI is closely collaborating with United Nations mission MINUSCA to support reconstruction and stabilisation efforts […]
25th August 2020
En Colombia, la mezcla de altos niveles de hacinamiento en las cárceles, la deficiencia de los servicios de salud y la falta de acceso a bienes y servicios básicos como el agua han provocado violencia y disturbios durante la pandemia del coronavirus. En este blog, investigadores de Dejusticia explican cómo el gobierno no solo no […]
13th August 2020