Featured Blog
In this blog, the authors argue that green spaces are essential prison infrastructure, showing that biodiverse landscapes reduce violence, stress and self-harm, support rehabilitation and security, and improve climate resilience. Even small changes in older prisons can help, making nature-rich environments key to dignity and meaningful reform.
2nd December 2025
Featured Blog
In this blog, Gustav Tallving, Executive Director of EuroPris, explores a key issue affecting prison systems across Europe and beyond: the role and challenges faced by prison staff.
6th November 2025
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
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 blog to mark International Women’s Day celebrated on Sunday 8 March 2020, Penal Reform International’s Executive Director, Florian Irminger, reflects on the reasons for women who find themselves in prisons from Central African Republic to Costa Rica.
10th March 2020
“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 […]
21st November 2019
Earlier this month, Florian Irminger joined Penal Reform International as its new Executive Director. In his first blog for PRI, Florian reflects upon the organisation’s practical approach to penal reform, which has enabled PRI to play a key role in implementing international standards and provide effective and tailored solutions to criminal justice problems worldwide. It […]
13th September 2018
Today, the fourth edition of the World Female Imprisonment List is published by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR). Catherine Heard, Director of the ICPR’s World Prison Research Programme, discusses the latest data. This week at ICPR we release the most comprehensive global dataset ever produced on women prisoner numbers. The fourth edition of […]
9th November 2017
2016 год для двух городов Казахстана – Алматы и Актобе – запомнится в красном цвете террористической угрозы высшей степени. Людям пришлось пережить атаки радикалов. Пережив панический страх и ужас, люди потребовали от властей незамедлительной реакции. Все чаще в СМИ и на страницах социальных сетей разворачивались словесные баталии. И все чаще результатом их становился слоган: «Смерть […]
16th February 2017
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 […]
18th May 2016
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 […]
11th May 2016
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 […]
4th May 2016