Our achievements - Penal Reform International

Our achievements

For 30 years, PRI has been working in the field of criminal justice and penal reform at national, regional and international levels. Please explore the timeline below for highlights from our work. Over the years, we have had many successes, working in more than 90 countries. We are proud of our past achievements and look forward to the years ahead. We need your support!

1997

The Kadoma Declaration on Community Service Orders emerges from a PRI international conference held in Zimbabwe, where over a three-year trial period 16,000 people received community service orders instead of prison sentences. In the Caribbean, PRI begins working with children charged with minor offences as data shows that children sent to prison are more likely to join a criminal gang and commit further offences on release than those given non-custodial sentences. See our work on justice for children here.

1996

In Africa, PRI and the ACHPR organise the largest-ever conference on prison conditions, attended by delegates from over 40 African states, which results in an appointment by the Commission of a Special Rapporteur on prisons and conditions of detention in Africa. Work begins in Puerto Rico to facilitate sharing of experience in and from that region, providing training to local organisations on good practice in prison management.

1995

PRI launches Making Standards Work, a practical guide to the implementation of human rights standards in prison.

1994

PRI projects are run in over 30 countries around the world, including in South Asia and Latin America.

1993

PRI is granted Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Council of Europe, and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). PRI begins working with local partners in sub-Saharan Africa, planning a hostel for released prisoners in Kenya and Tanzania, and a programme of community service in Zimbabwe as an alternative to custody. See our work in East Africa.

1992

PRI supports prisoners on death row in the Caribbean.

1990

PRI registers as an association in the Netherlands with specific objectives to address the overuse of incarceration and its effects, eliminate discrimination in access to justice, and work for the abolition of the death penalty.

1989

First steps are taken to establish PRI by an international group of criminal justice and human rights activists, inspired by change brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall.