Blog

Coronavirus and women in detention: A gender-specific approach missing

En español. The coronavirus pandemic has brought a whole host of responses by prisons and wider justice systems, but the plight of women has been neglected or overtly disregarded. Without a gender-specific assessment and response to coronavirus, lives of women in criminal justice systems are at risk and human rights violations will continue.  This expert […]

Olivia Rope4th 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

Perspective on rehabilitation in different correctional settings

In the criminal justice system where one is grappling with the issue of serving timely justice, a discussion on the rehabilitation of prisoners may seem futile. The term rehabilitation in a correctional setting is apparently a romanticized word. Hence rehabilitation is one of the contentious aspects of criminology and penology. From criminal justice, perspective rehabilitation […]

Gauri Sharma3rd June 2019

HM Inspectorate of Prisons for England & Wales marks Nelson Mandela International Day

On Nelson Mandela International Day – the second since the UN agreed the revised set of Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules – Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, explains how HMI Prisons has incorporated the Rules into their latest edition of Expectations, which sets out the detailed criteria used to inspect […]

Peter Clarke18th July 2017

Much ado about nothing? The Global Commission on Drug Policy assessment of UNGASS

Pavel Bém is former Mayor of Prague and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Czech Republic. Here he gives his assessment of April’s UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem. The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on “the world drug problem” was an important moment for the international […]

Pavel Bém18th May 2016

Scaling up harm reduction in prisons: a role for prison monitors and new tools

Harm Reduction International has published a new tool for use by prison monitoring mechanisms (national, regional and international) to monitor the management of communicable diseases and harm reduction in prisons and prevent human rights violations in this context. Gen Sander, Human Rights Analyst at Harm Reduction International, introduces the tool here. Last October, I wrote […]

Gen Sander11th May 2016

UNGASS on Drugs: on expectations, coherence and sustainable development

The UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) took place New York on 19-21 April. Javier Sagredo is Regional Democratic Governance and Citizen Security Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean for the UN Development Programme (UNDP). In this expert blog for PRI, he examines whether the outcomes of this UNGASS meeting, as well […]

Javier Sagredo, UNDP4th May 2016

Effects of incarceration of child-rearing parents − a brief look at some aspects

PRI Board Member and member of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Justice Imman Ali, outlines the problems facing women prisoners and children in Bangladeshi prisons and calls for the best interests of the child to be paramount when considering the sentencing of the parent. The situation in the prisons of Bangladesh is overcrowded beyond all proportions. […]

Justice Imman Ali1st April 2016

How to build a prison compliant with human rights norms

To fill the gap between international norms and the relative lack of information on how to build a compliant prison in difficult circumstances, UNOPS recently developed a Technical Guidance for Prison Planning document that facilitates a human rights-based approach in the development of prison infrastructure. This blog post by Gordon Nuttall and Pedja Jurisic (UNOPS) […]

Gordon Nuttall and Pedja Jurisic25th February 2016