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Women in Cambodian prisons: The challenges of caring for their children

In this blog, Billy Gorter from the organisation, This Life Cambodia, shares the findings of research undertaken on Why Children Accompany Women into Prison. It is particularly timely as the Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty is soon to be published in full, in the same week that the international community will mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. From data gathered from a range of official statistics, the Global Study estimated that the number of children living in prisons with their primary caregivers is 19,000 children per year.

Expert guest for PRIBilly Gorter4th November 2019

What happens to the child whose parent is sentenced to death?

To mark the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2019, this expert blog by Oliver Robertson, an expert on abolition of the death penalty and rights of children whose parents are in prison, reflects on the impacts of having a parent sentenced to death or executed. The World Day 2019 is dedicated to raising awareness on the rights of children whose parents have been sentenced to death or executed.

Oliver Robertson9th October 2019

UN reports that gendered stereotypes, economic deprivation, and experiences of violence and conflict are among underlying causes for women’s imprisonment

On 15 May 2019, the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice published a new report evaluating the root causes of women’s deprivation of liberty. In this blog, Aldyen Krieger, a member of PRI’s policy programme, reflects on the unique path of victimisation and criminalisation many women offenders in criminal justice systems face and the continued importance of effective gender-specific penal reform in the wake of the report’s findings.

Aldyen Krieger24th September 2019

Niñez que Cuenta: La cara invisibilizada de las políticas de drogas y el encarcelamiento

Es así, que las voces de 70 NNAPES de entre 7 y 17 años de ocho países de la región -Brasil, Panamá, México, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia y República Dominicana- han sido el principal insumo y la base sobre la que se produjo Niñez que Cuenta. El impacto de las políticas de drogas sobre niños, niñas y adolescentes con madres y padres encarcelados en América Latina y el Caribe, el estudio regional producido por Church World Service (Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe) con la colaboración de Gurises Unidos (Uruguay).

Expert guest for PRICorina Giacomello and Luciano Cadoni24th September 2019

Childhood that matters: The invisible face of drug policy and incarceration

This external expert blog details the findings of a new report, Childhood that matters: The impact of drug policy on children of incarcerated parents in Latin American and the Caribbean, a report led by Church World Service (Buenos Aires Regional Office) and Gurises Unidos (Uruguay). It is available in English and Spanish.

Expert guest for PRICorina Giacomello and Luciano Cadoni24th September 2019

The Meaning of Rehabilitation-Resocialization and its Regulation Based on National and International Standards

Georgia has a young democracy, and the country’s supreme law, the constitution, in the preamble states the priority of establishing the democratic social order, economic freedom, and a legal and social state, which guarantees the universally recognized human rights and freedoms. Therefore, it is the priority of the state to develop and improve the institutions designed to protect basic human rights and freedoms, especially in the implementation of criminal justice policy by the state. The liberal criminal justice policy carried out in the country raised the discussion on the purposes of punishment, in particular, the rehabilitation and resocialization of convicted individuals, and due to the topicality of the issue, the present essay will focus on the meaning and aims of rehabilitation and resocialization of the convicted persons and measures that are necessary for the efficiency of this process.

Rusudan Sulamanidze13th August 2019

“People Like Me”and “Others”

During the hot July of 2018 I was taking the Unified National Exams. My third exam was in English language. I arrived early at the examination centre. There was a prisoner in front of me during the registration, maybe of my age or slightly older, accompanied by two escorts. After redirecting him to the exam room, the registrar said - hopefully he will be placed with the ones like him. My exam room was next to that exam room. I did not look inside, but I knew that there were “people like me” as well. Unfortunately for the registrar, the prisoners were not placed in isolated exam rooms.

Mariam Dangadze13th August 2019

Children of women in prison

This blog explains why chidlren of imprisoned mothers need particular attention, and work carried out by PRI in the South Caucasus to provide assistance and services to, among other things, promote positive emotional relationships between mothers and children.

Irena Gabunia6th August 2019

Where to build a prison?!

A prisoner should be cut off and isolated from the society, as an infection or an outgrowth on the skin from a healthy body, but isolation is not enough for the peacefulness of the citizens! Prisoners should be as far from the public as possible and serve their sentence on the island, which is difficult to reach, in the backwoods or in a prison built on uninhabited place, so that in addition to having minimal influence on the rest of the public, the prisoners as well as their family members, who want to visit them, suffer from a lot of obstacles and humiliations… - this is an approach towards prisoners and imprisonment in totalitarian countries, this was an approach in the Soviet Union as well, part of which was Georgia, where rough climate and detachment from civilization was also part of the punishment.

Jimsher Rekhviashvili9th July 2019