This guide supports detention monitors in preventing, investigating and responding to deaths in custody. It offers practical guidance grounded in international standards, with recommendations to strengthen oversight, improve data collection, and uphold the right to life in detention settings.
Green Prisons: A Guide to Creating Environmentally Sustainable Prisons explores how prisons can adopt sustainable practices, reduce ecological harm and support rehabilitation. Co-published by PRI & UNICRI.
Corruption poses a significant challenge in criminal justice systems globally, impacting the human rights of prisoners and the effective administration of justice. Prisons, due to their opaque nature, inherent power imbalances and limited oversight, are particularly vulnerable to corruption. This can manifest in various forms, from petty bribery to large-scale misappropriation of funds and sexual […]
This guide, published by Penal Reform International and TGEU, provides a human rights-based framework for placing trans and non-binary individuals in prison.
Investigating deaths in prisons is an essential part of a state’s human rights responsibilities, including the obligation to guarantee the right to life and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Investigations of deaths in prisons provide crucial evidence to find out what went wrong, provide redress to families, […]
The European Prison Rules, adopted by the Council of Europe, set out standards on the management of prisons and the treatment of people in prison. They apply in all Council of Europe member States and provide critical guidance to prison staff on how to protect and safeguard the human rights of people in prison – […]
The Index of Implementation accompanies the Guidance Document on the Bangkok Rules. Developed in partnership with the Thailand Institute of Justice, it seeks to assist key actors and others to assess the extent to which the Bangkok Rules are reflected in their criminal justice systems, to help identify gaps in implementation and, together with the Guidance […]
This guide is based on research into the COVID-19 justice response around the world, including a particular focus on the responses in Kenya and Kazakhstan. The analysis examines the elements of justice system governance which enabled the sector to react quickly and effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic in prisons as well as the factors which inhibited timely, relevant responses. The guide aims to inform better governance in any future crisis situations, as well as the direction of penal reform more broadly.
This guidance document on implementing the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders, co-published with the Thailand Institute of Justice, is part of PRI’s Toolbox on the UN Bangkok Rules. It has been updated in 2021 to reflect new standards, particularly the Nelson Mandela Rules and the […]
This methodology for judges of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on the use of alternative sanctions to imprisonment sets out the methodological foundations for the criminal sentencing; the concept of alternative penalties and their application; and recommendations for judges on the imposition of criminal sentences not related to imprisonment in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The document was […]