Featured Blog
One week after International Women’s Day, a coalition of organisations and experts convened to address the rising trend of women’s criminalisation driven by poverty in a side event at the 68th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York on 15 March. The event highlighted the intersections of gender, […]
4th April 2024
Featured Blog
Figure 1: Principles of Growth Wheel In this blog written for PRI, the authors Makayla Agyemang and Dr Sarah Lewis from UK-based Penal Reform Solutions, present the “Growth Project” that they have implemented in English prisons to foster rehabilitative relationships between people detained and staff in prison facilities. The project is based on Dr […]
14th February 2024
In many countries around the world, criminal justice fines disproportionately affect the poorest and most marginalised in society, effectively creating tiered justice systems. In this blog, Jean Galbraith and Rheem Brooks from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School summarise the findings of new research and discuss what international human rights and criminal justice communities […]
16th October 2023
In July 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights presented its first ever report detailing the scale and situation of women deprived of liberty in the Americas. In this blog, Coletta Youngers considers its findings and their importance for efforts to reduce women’s incarceration across the region. This article was originally published by WOLA (Washington […]
16th August 2023
En julio de 2023, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos presentó su primer informe sobre la magnitud y la situación de las mujeres privadas de libertad en las Américas. En este blog, Coletta Youngers analiza sus conclusiones y su importancia para los esfuerzos por reducir el encarcelamiento de mujeres en toda la región. Este artículo […]
16th August 2023
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
The number and proportion of foreign nationals in prison and serving probation varies greatly between regions and countries. In the second blog of our series examining trends identified in Global Prison Trends 2021, Petra Pavlas considers the particular impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on foreign nationals in prison and probation as well as its impact on those released from prison during this time in Europe, where foreign nationals make up almost a quarter of national prison populations.
6th September 2021
In this blog Olivia Rope, Executive Director of Penal Reform International, gives a summary and highlights a few key points from the recently published ‘Common position on incarceration’ from the United Nations System. For the first time, the United Nations system has issued a common position on incarceration which was unveiled at an event on […]
11th June 2021
In this blog, Jérôme Mangelinckx considers the drivers and implications of the growing female prison population in Peru, examining the overuse of detention for those awaiting trial, and how to move towards greater use of non-custodial alternatives to detention. 2020 marked the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners […]
26th April 2021
In this blog, Olivia Rope, Executive Director for Penal Reform International and Vice-Chair of the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice gives her top five takeaways from the Kyoto Declaration which was adopted as the outcome of the 14th UN Crime Congress.
30th March 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
This expert blog by human rights expert and commentator, Vicki Prais, examines the issues faced by people in prison without proof of legal identity. Vicki explains how the absence of ID can in itself lead to detention for some people, and also causes a range of problems for those detained or leaving prison impacting on […]
9th October 2020