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 […]
4th June 2020
In this expert blog for PRI, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris says COVID-19 has exposed the urgent need for long-term societal and institutional reform and that human rights must be front and centre of the global response to the pandemic. This blog draws on the remarks made by the Assistant-Secretary General at the launch of Global Prison Trends 2020.
11th May 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
This week in Geneva the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty was presented after three years of research. The Study represents the first scientific attempt, on the basis of global data, to comprehend the magnitude of the situation of children deprived of liberty, its possible justifications and root causes, as well as conditions […]
22nd November 2019
“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
On 15 May 2019, the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice published a new report evaluating the root causes of women’s deprivation of liberty. In this blog, Aldyen Krieger, a member of PRI’s policy programme, reflects on the unique path of victimisation and criminalisation many […]
24th September 2019
“Mi papá es genial.” ¿Cuál es su nombre? “Bernardo.” Cuéntame un poquito sobre él. ¿Qué te gustaba hacer con él? “A mí me gustaba jugar, a veces me dejaba ir a la callecita [calle de la comunidad], o con mi mamá, y él jugaba conmigo.” ¿Y por qué no juegas más con Bernardo? “Porque está […]
24th September 2019
“My dad is great.” What’s his name? “Bernardo.” Tell me a bit about him. What did you like to do together? “I liked to play. Sometimes he would let me go out to the street [in the neighborhood], or with my mom, or he would play with me.” Why don’t you play with Bernardo anymore? […]
24th September 2019
Restorative justice is a practice in which the person(s) who were harmed by a crime, and those who were responsible for that harm, are brought into communication. In this blog, Dr. Ian Marder discusses the implementation of restorative justice in some key jurisdictions, focusing on their legislation, policies and models of service provision. Restorative justice […]
10th January 2019
Image: The Good Loaf Cafe. Where studies of mental illness have been conducted with prison populations, the prevalence has been consistently shown to be high.[1] Women offenders’ mental healthcare needs can be even higher than men’s, often as a result of violence and trauma. Community-based sentences are more effective in reducing reoffending and providing support for […]
1st November 2018