Featured Blog
In this blog, PRI’s Executive Director Olivia Rope reflects on the urgent need for meaningful prison reform, drawing on her recent participation at the United Nations General Assembly session marking ten years of the Nelson Mandela Rules.
25th June 2025
Featured Blog
In this expert blog for Penal Reform International, Dr Marion Vannier and Dr Helen Gair from the University of Manchester explore how hope is imagined, experienced and transformed within the context of life imprisonment.
5th June 2025
Featured Blog
How can probation services help build a greener future? In this blog, Rob Allen and Steve Pitts propose a “Green Probation Agenda” to align rehabilitation with environmental sustainability, showcasing global promising practices.
29th April 2025
Featured Blog
Drawing on interviews with older people in California’s prisons, this blog explores end-of-life care in prison—revealing urgent challenges, patient perspectives, and lessons for humane, geriatric prison health reform.
12th April 2025
Featured Blog
Violence in European prisons is rising, driven by overcrowding, staff shortages, and organised crime. This blog explores trends, data practices, and reforms needed for humane, rehabilitative and secure prison systems.
2nd April 2025
Featured Blog
Discover how European prisons navigate overcrowding. This blog explores disparities, impacts, and innovative reforms, drawing on 2024 data and insights from PRI’s Global Prison Trends series.
11th December 2024
On 14th of June 2024, the 27 Justice Ministers of the EU adopted landmark Council Conclusions on ‘Small-scale Detention: focusing on social rehabilitation and reintegration into society’. In this blog, Noa Shoshan from RESCALED – a movement advocating for the use of detention houses instead of large prison institutions – explains their relevance for the […]
23rd October 2024
Смята се, че повече от 10 000 деца в Европа са задържани по наказателноправни причини. В световен мащаб броят на децата, лишени от свобода в затвори или в места за предварително задържане, варира между 160 000 и 250 000 дневно през 2018 г. Безопасността на тези деца е от първостепенно значение, включително защитата от физическо […]
21st December 2023
A hidden crisis: More than 10,000 children in Europe face the risk of violence in criminal justice-related detention. Explore the alarming global statistics and join expert Silvia Randazzo in a deep dive into research conducted as part of the Data MOSAIC project, shedding light on the safeguarding blindspot of violence against children in detention.
18th November 2023
In a context of climate crisis and rising costs, prisons, like all institutions, must take action to be more sustainable and minimise impact on the environment. In this blog, Wiep Fokker from Restorative Justice Netherlands makes the case for nature-based detention houses as an ecologically sustainable model for penal reform. The climate and biodiversity crisis […]
24th October 2023
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
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
On 8 – 9 September, PRI joined the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation (IPPF) 150th anniversary celebrations in Geneva to mark IPPF’s contributions to criminal justice reform. Over the two-day event, PRI staff from Europe, Middle East and North Africa, South Caucasus and Sub-Saharan Africa took part in discussions on challenges and opportunities for supporting […]
26th September 2022
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
In this expert blog for PRI, Victoria Patrickson, who has studied governmental policy on the management of transgender people in prison, discusses the unique issues faced by this population and the approaches adopted by various governments. Gender identification, housing decisions, searching arrangements, access to healthcare, violence and sexual assault are just a number of the […]
30th September 2020
In recent decades technological innovation has provided many opportunities for supporting prison management and the rehabilitation of people in prison. As documented in Global Prison Trends 2020, video visitation systems, remote court hearings and electronic file management systems are well established in some and becoming more common in some regions’ prisons, namely in Europe, North […]
17th July 2020