Last week, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and Penal Reform International jointly organised a workshop in Kampala for 23 judges and members of the Judicial Studies Institute. The workshop sought to raise judges’ awareness of provisions regarding non-custodial measures in the UN Bangkok Rules. The participating judges were working in magistrates courts which means they […]
18th March 2016
Everyone deprived of their liberty has the right to clothing that is adequate, appropriate to the season, and does not humiliate or degrade. However, research into fashion and clothing suggests that rather than just being mere fabric to cover us up and keep us warm or cool, clothing can be significant for our sense of self and dignity. This blog is […]
11th March 2016
From 3-5 February 2016, six NGOs from Uganda and Kenya participated in an exchange visit organised and hosted by the African Prisons Project (APP) in partnership with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI). The participants visited and interacted with prisoners and prison staff making a difference in women’s prisons in Uganda with the support from […]
4th March 2016
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) […]
25th February 2016
PRI has a strong history of working on alternatives to imprisonment in East Africa and the latest manifestation of this comes in the form of the UKAid sponsored ExTRA Project – Excellence in Training on Rehabilitation in Africa. A mid-term evaluation has been completed of this pilot project across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which focuses […]
18th February 2016
PRI’s Policy Director reports on a Hearing of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on world drug policies, part of a preparations for the forthcoming UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in April. When discussions about the international drug control regime were still relatively ‘tame’ in international fora, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) included in the agenda of its 128th Assembly […]
15th February 2016
If you want to know how many people are in prison in the Seychelles, your luck is in. Today sees the latest edition of the World Prison Population List compiled by Roy Walmsley. Roy started to produce the essential resource when he worked in the Home Office. The UK government decided to stop publishing it […]
3rd February 2016
On Monday this week, the US Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v Louisiana that people currently serving life sentences for offences they committed as juveniles must either be considered for parole or re-sentenced. In 2012, the Court had held that a mandatory life sentence without parole (LWOP) was unconstitutional for those under the age of […]
3rd February 2016
In many countries, prison food is insufficient in quantity and quality. Budgets are low (less than 0.5 USD per prisoner per day according to data recently gathered by PRI) and there have been cases where prisoners have died from starvation. In higher-income countries, food is more available but still may not be ‘of nutritional value adequate for health and strength, of wholesome quality and […]
25th January 2016
In this guest blog, Louise Finer, Coordinator of the UK’s National Preventative Mechanism, explains the findings from the NPM’s review of ‘isolation’ and ‘solitary confinement’ in detention. The NPM’s monitoring uncovered widespread practices that met the UN Mandela Rules internationally agreed definition of solitary confinement. On 1 December 2015, the UK’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) […]
8th January 2016