Blog

Investing in decongesting: building community service staff capacity in Uganda

In late August, PRI brought together members of local criminal justice agencies across Jinja, Mbale and Iganga, Uganda, in order to raise awareness and promote community service as an alternative to imprisoning people for petty crimes. Police, Prison and Probation Officers as well as Court Clerks took part in a day of discussion and learning […]

Omar Phoenix Khan1st September 2015

In California’s experience, it isn’t bigger prisons that crime victims want

‘Tough on crime’ policies are often justified on the basis that putting people in prison for longer is what victims want and deserve. In 2013, Californians for Safety and Justice, which campaigns for more effective public safety policy − conducted a survey to find out whether this was what victims in California actually did want. The results turned the established narrative […]

Lenore Anderson25th August 2015

Using popular culture to address legal rights education in Sierra Leone

Women have a number of difficulties when they come to face to face with the legal system in Sierra Leone. Their low levels of education and literacy make seemingly simple things − understanding a charge or signing a confession − extremely problematic. Women were also among the vulnerable groups that fared worst under the state of emergency measures brought in to […]

Simitie Lavaly7th August 2015

Delivering justice Ugandan style

Last week, Nikhil Roy, PRI’s Director of Programme Development, visited Mayuge District in rural Eastern Uganda, to meet various players in the district’s community service programme and to attend a meeting for local stakeholders. Mayuge is one district selected as part of a pilot project supported by PRI in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Prisons in all three countries are severely overcrowded […]

Nikhil Roy5th August 2015

The person at the heart of rehabilitation: reflections on the 2nd World Congress on Community Corrections

PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, and Omar Khan, project co-ordinator for our ExTRA project on alternatives to custody in East Africa, attended the Second World Congress on Community Corrections held in Los Angeles from 14-16 July.  The conference was attended by 360 participants from 27 countries and focused on innovations in community corrections and the […]

Alison Hannah24th July 2015

Opening the steel door: how Colorado is reforming solitary confinement

Isolation from the rest of the prison population, whether as a disciplinary measure or for the ‘protection’ of vulnerable individuals, is used in most countries to different degrees. That solitary confinement can have a terrible impact on prisoners’ mental health, is however, now increasingly acknowledged by many people. Many are also questioning the wisdom of […]

Rick Raemisch, Colorado Dept of Corrections24th July 2015

What does the adoption of the ‘Mandela Rules’ mean for prisons and prisoners in Uganda?

Doreen Namyalo Kyazze from the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative in Uganda joined the PRI team at the UN Crime Commission in May for the adoption of the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules). Here she explains some of the challenges facing prisons and prisoners in Uganda – the […]

Doreen Namyalo Kyazze29th June 2015

Introduction to the ‘Mandela Rules’ with Andrea Huber

On 22 May 2015, at the UN Crime Commission in Vienna, states agreed on a new set of prison standards – a new and updated version of the well-known and well-used Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR). Andrea Huber, PRI’s Policy Director, was involved in the revision process and was present in […]

Andrea Huber15th June 2015

Picking litter, planting ideas: addressing scepticism about community service in Kenya

PRI’s ExTRA (Excellence in Training and Rehabilitation) project coordinator, Omar Khan, travelled to Meru, Kenya, last month where he took part in activities designed to inform the local community about the benefits of community service versus a prison sentence for minor offences and challenge common perceptions that community service orders are a ‘soft landing’. Consistently, one of the key […]

Omar Khan2nd June 2015

Working with businesses to improve job prospects for former prisoners in Russian penal colonies – an emerging model

During a recent visit to Russia PRI London staff members, Nikhil Roy and Jenny Clarkin, together with PRI’s Moscow Regional Director Vika Sergeyeva, met Petr Posmakov, Head of ‘Vozvrascheniye’ programme at the Volnoe Delo Foundation. For the last 18 months, PRI has been part of a multi-stakeholder project funded by the Foundation to improve the rehabilitation and […]

Nikhil Roy1st June 2015