Blog

How to build for success: prison design and infrastructure as a tool for rehabilitation

In the third blog of our anniversary series, Marayca Lopez i Ferrer, Senior Corrections Analyst and Planner at US firm CGL/Ricci Greene Associates, explores how forward-thinking architects are moving away from classical models of prison architecture – high perimeter razor-wire topped fences, gloomy undersized concrete cells along narrow corridors – to experiment with innovative spatial concepts […]

Dr Marayca López24th July 2014

Radicalisation and de-radicalisation in prison – what should we do with violent extremist offenders?

In the second blog in our anniversary series, Dr Shane Bryans, a former UK prison governor and criminal justice expert, who has worked on prison-based de-radicalisation programmes in a number of countries, examines how prison administrations can manage violent extremist offenders.  Countries on every continent are facing the challenge of managing Violent Extremist Offenders (VEOs) within their prison systems. Preventing them […]

Shane Bryans25th June 2014

Finding effective solutions to poor prison conditions

PRI’s Executive Director reports from a meeting organised by the Open Society Foundations to discuss how the US can support interventions to improve prison conditions in developing countries. It’s a few years now since PRI had to close its small office in the U.S. when funding ran out, and since then it’s been more difficult […]

Alison Hannah11th June 2014

When will the tide turn in prison politics? Global prison trends

PRI’s Policy Director, Andrea Huber, looks at the some of the major trends – national, international, the good, the bad and the ugly – in criminal justice and penal policy over the last few years. This blog was first published by the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. If there is a criminal […]

Andrea Huber11th June 2014

Prisons: state duty or market opportunity?

In the first of our expert blog series in our 25th anniversary year, Rob Allen, penal reform expert and co-author of a recent World Bank paper on public-private partnerships in prisons, surveys the arguments and existing evidence in favour of and against the involvement of private companies in prison services. When PRI was founded in […]

Rob Allen23rd May 2014

‘Why don’t they chat as they work?’ A visit to Lo Wu Correctional Institution, Hong Kong

This week, PRI’s Policy Director, Andrea Huber, attended an international conference in Hong Kong and visited Lo Wu Correctional Institution, a newly built women’s prison near the border with the Chinese mainland. Participants were very complimentary about the international conference organised by Dui Hua Foundation, in cooperation with Hong Kong University and Renmin University in […]

Andrea Huber4th March 2014

An end of year message from Alison Hannah, PRI’s Executive Director

Every day about 20 news stories pop in my email inbox, giving the latest headlines from around the world on prison and penal issues. Over the past couple of days, these include: ‘Epidemic of self-mutilation’ in women’s prisons in England and Wales’ ‘Inmates need needle-exchange programs and better access to HIV treatment: study’ (Canada) ‘Anti-torture […]

Alison Hannah18th December 2013

Prisons: “the most critical area of human rights in a civilised society”

Today – Human Rights Day (10 December 2013) – is a chance for organisations around the world to draw attention to both the continuing violations of peoples’ rights and the positive steps being made in protecting and respecting them. So it is appropriate that today PRI is in Kolkata, India, conducting a training of trainers’ workshop […]

Becky Randel10th December 2013

Security doesn’t trump dignity in prisons

A new publication published today by PRI and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) addresses how detention monitoring bodies can help redress the balance between security and dignity in prisons. “Not only are prisons and human dignity compatible, they must be compatible.”  Andrew Coyle, A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management. Dignity is […]

Harriet Lowe11th November 2013