Blog

How can criminal justice systems from police to probation address the medical and social care needs of elderly prisoners?

The number of older prisoners in prison populations is growing in many countries, in part due to ageing populations and often in part to punitive sentencing policies. However, older prisoners are more likely than their peers in the community to be disabled, to have multiple, costly chronic health conditions, and experience age-related cognitive impairment including […]

Cyrus Ahalt and Brie Williams25th February 2015

Prison systems need to acknowledge widespread corruption

In the ninth of our expert blog series, former UK prison governor and criminal justice expert, John Podmore, says that recognition that corruption is a widespread problem in prison systems – and subsequent action to tackle it – is long overdue. While we recognise that there is corruption in politics, business, sport and most other […]

John Podmore25th January 2015

New research suggests Albania needs a more gender-sensitive justice and penal policy

Like in many countries, women in conflict with the law in Albania are neglected as policies are drafted with only the male majority of offenders in mind, creating an urgent need for greater consideration of women’s needs in criminal justice and penal policy. Between 2010 and 2013 as part of her PhD thesis, Edlira Papavangjeli, Program […]

Edlira Papavangjeli, Albanian Helsinki Committee15th January 2015

Recommended New Year reading from PRI: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

For the second time in the past three months, PRI has been sent a book that gives a devastating insight into the dysfunctional workings of the American criminal justice system. In the first, Nancy Mullane, also a winner in our international journalism competition last year, interviews a number of prisoners and  follows their attempts to […]

Alison Hannah8th January 2015

Making deprivation of children’s liberty a last resort: what should our priorities be?

In early December PRI attended the 6th International Conference of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory, Making deprivation of children’s liberty a last resort – towards evidence-based policies on alternatives. The Conference, held over 2 days on 3–4 December, provided a very timely opportunity on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of […]

Nikhil Roy22nd December 2014

Turning recommendations into reality: improving the impact of detention monitoring bodies

Thirty years after the entry into force of the UN Convention against Torture (CAT), there is still a considerable implementation gap and torture continues to exist worldwide. One of the most significant developments over the last few years has been the establishment of National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs). While these bodies carry out regular monitoring visits […]

Moritz Birk, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute9th December 2014

25 years preventive monitoring of places of detention – has the CPT achieved its goal in Europe?

In 1989 the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment came into force, establishing the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). The CPT was the first system with a mandate to conduct visits to places of detention on a regular […]

PRI at the Crime Congress 2015Julia Kozma, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture25th November 2014

Convincing states that imprisoning children is the least appropriate method can be difficult but there have been successes

Today (20 November) the international community is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ratified by 194 countries worldwide, the CRC is the most widely supported treaty in international human rights history. It represents an unprecedented global commitment to address the particular needs of children, […]

Renate Winter20th November 2014

When Pussy Riot met UK penal reformers

PRI was pleased to welcome Pussy Riot to its offices in London on Friday along with representatives from the prison reform sector in the UK, including members of the Prison Reform Trust and Women in Prison. Since being released after spending 18 months in the Russian penal system, Nadezhda (Nadia) Tolokonnikova and Maria (Masha) Alyokhina supported […]

Harriet Lowe17th November 2014