All prisoners, including those sentenced to life imprisonment, should have a prospect of release. Failure to provide for such a prospect by setting up a mechanism to review life sentences after a reasonable period amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment, which infringes the prohibition on such treatment in Article 3 of the European Convention on […]
24th July 2013
Training on the UN Bangkok Rules for prison officials in Bangladesh provides an insight into the problems faced by women prisoners, as well as some positive progress. Overcrowding in prisons is a major problem in many countries, and Bangladesh is no exception. While there is prison capacity for only around 27,368 people, the system […]
19th July 2013
A national strike by Kenya’s teachers has not prevented more than fifteen school heads and deputy heads taking part in PRI’s latest training seminars designed to promote alternatives to prison in East Africa. Schools are among the wide range of institutions where offenders sentenced to Community Service Orders (CSOs) undertake unpaid work for the benefit […]
3rd July 2013
PRI’s Programme Development Director reports on a consultation this week with experts in Bali, Indonesia. Organised jointly by the Norwegian and Indonesian Governments, the office of the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children and UNICEF, the consultation began with an outline of the new Indonesian Juvenile Justice (JJ) Law adopted in 2012 and due for […]
28th June 2013
“Come to my office at midday”, Prof Christie replied in response to a message seeking an appointment with him during my visit to Oslo on 30 May. He went on: “my office is very centrally located but often, idiotically enough, blocked by locked doors – you will need help to get in”. At 12 noon […]
3rd June 2013
On 16 May the Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ), PRI and Child Rights International Network (CRIN) welcomed over 50 guests to a Seminar on Reducing Incarceration of Children: good practice from the UK and overseas. Panel guests represented leading agencies working with the UK and abroad including: Juliet Lyon, Prison Reform Trust Tabitha Kassem, […]
30th May 2013
Institutional culture in prisons was the focus of the regional forum hosted by the PRI Office in Tbilisi on 29 April. Representatives of civil society and government from all three South Caucasus republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) were attended. The existence of non-statutory, hierarchical relations between inmates was widely discussed. The hierarchy among prisoners often […]
13th May 2013
Prisons, like any closed institutions or environments, are places where large groups of inmates are often managed by small teams of staff. To keep order and safety, prison management is strictly hierarchical, regulating every aspect of the life of the detainees. In many ways, prisons turn into ‘mini societies’, with their own rules and their […]
30th April 2013
PRI’s Death Penalty Programme Manager Jacqueline Macalesher responds to the revised EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty adopted last week, which have made a number of significant improvements to the EU’s policy on the fight against the death penalty. On 22 April, the Foreign Affairs Council adopted new revised and updated EU Guidelines on the […]
30th April 2013
Last month former Guardian journalist Malcolm Dean helped to train 25 journalists in Kazakhstan on current issues in criminal justice reform, the current situation in Kazakhstan’s prisons, strategies for good journalism and successful techniques for bringing criminal justice and human rights to public attention. It came as a shock to learn that only a few […]
4th April 2013