While prison reform has hardly figured in the US Presidential campaign, there are signs that America’s love affair with incarceration may be coming to an end…. Read Rob Allen’s full blog on Justice for Prisons.
6th November 2012
PRI Programme Officer Jenny Clarkin reports from Uzbekistan on a PRI training programme for social workers and members of the judiciary to improve the care and protection of children at risk. Leaving London behind on a mild autumn morning I embarked on the long journey to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I’m here because PRI are currently working […]
25th October 2012
PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, reports from Kazakhstan where PRI brought together a forum of policy-makers, national and international experts to support local authorities deliver effective reintegration services for ex-prisoners. The government of Kazakhstan handed over responsibility for the reintegration of ex-prisoners to local authorities a couple of years ago. However, many authorities have experienced […]
20th October 2012
Alison Hannah, PRI’s Executive Director, reports from a workshop for magistrates in Kisumu in Kenya’s Western Province. About ten years ago, PRI worked with local partners in a number of East African countries to help develop and support community service orders (CSOs) as an alternative to imprisonment. CSOs offer a more effective and humane way […]
5th October 2012
For the past week, PRI has delivered training on human rights in prison management for prison and corrections staff, in the beautiful Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. The training was organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and attended by representatives from Australia and a number of island countries: Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, […]
1st June 2012
On 23rd May 2012, Penal Reform International held a round table in Shymkent on the topic of ‘The system of re-socialisation of ex-prisoners in Kazakhstan: effective methods of coordination of the powers of state agencies’. The round table was within the framework of the PRI project ‘Rehabilitation of ex-prisoners and protection of their human rights by mutual […]
23rd May 2012
(17th May 2012) PRI Associate Rob Allen writes from Dar es Salaam Arriving in Dar last Sunday, much of Tanzania seemed engrossed in the dramatic finale of the English premier league. Meanwhile, at the Mbeza Garden Hotel some forty magistrates were registering for the first of two training courses on alternatives to prison sponsored by […]
17th May 2012
Continuing from our successful trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh, PRI’s Honorary President, Dr. Rani Shankardass and I travelled to Kolkata, capital of the Indian State of West Bengal, on Friday evening, 4 May. While PRI’s work in Bangladesh is well documented, we have not undertaken any work in the Indian state of West Bengal before. On Saturday […]
10th May 2012
I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 1 to 4 May to develop PRI’s work in the South Asia region. Alongside meetings with the Chief Justice and Law Minister, PRI had also organised, together with our local partner organisation BLAST (the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust), a roundtable event on women and girls in the […]
6th May 2012
Blog by PRI’s Executive Director Alison Hannah On Tuesday evening I arrived in Kiev for the final conference reporting on the outcomes of our 3-year programme to support penitentiary reform in Ukraine. As our Regional Director’s flight from Moscow was delayed, I went ahead to our hotel on a bizarre taxi ride along back streets […]
13th April 2012