Blog

Three ways to reduce the number of women in prison in the Americas

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 […]

Coletta Youngers16th August 2023

Tres formas de reducir el número de mujeres encarceladas en las Américas

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 […]

Coletta Youngers16th August 2023

Poverty and detention: Are legal frameworks adequate?

Pre-trial detention contributes significantly to prison overcrowding and causes a range of harms to individuals, their familes, and society. But what is driving its use? In this blog, Madhurima Dhanuka from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative presents the findings of a recent report and explores the disproportionate impact of pre-trial detention on poor and marginalised […]

Madhurima Dhanuka26th June 2023

Women deprived of liberty and excessive use of pre-trial detention in Peru

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 […]

Jérôme Mangelinckx26th April 2021

Five takeaways from the UN Crime Congress 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.

Olivia Rope30th March 2021

How COVID-19 has exacerbated problems created by excessive use of pre-trial detention

In this expert blog, the President of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, Joel Hernández, writes about alternatives to pre-trial detention in the Americas where the number of people held in remand are excessively high. Commissioner Hernández calls for the use of alternatives as an urgent measure to protect human rights – during the COVID-19 […]

Joel Hernández García15th June 2020

We are 30: Looking forward to the next decade

“It all started with a meeting…” 30 years ago, Vivien Stern, Ahmed Othmani and Hans Tulkens created Penal Reform International. They had in common the belief we still cherish, as stated by Nelson Mandela: “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails”. In other words, the health of criminal justice […]

Florian Irminger21st November 2019

Global Prison Trends 2018: a global view on the state of prisons

PRI has launched its annual flagship publication, Global Prison Trends 2018. Here we publish the foreword to the report, written by the Rt Hon Helen Clark, a Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Every year, Global Prison Trends by […]

Rt Hon Helen Clark15th May 2018