Blog

Fundación Espartanos: reducing crime and reintegrating people into society through sport, spirituality and education

Global Prison Trends 2022 highlighted a shift in international consensus to rehabilitative-based prisons, but a significant disparity between countries in the resourcing and availability of rehabilitation programming. In the third blog of our series examining trends identified in the report, Eduardo “Coco” Oderigo presents Fundación Espartanos – a programme providing sport, spirituality and education to […]

Eduardo “Coco” Oderigo23rd August 2022

Funding torture prevention monitoring bodies: An explainer

“Around the world, NPM budgets are tiny percentages of overall prison and detention budgets – less than a fraction of a percent” and yet their financial independence is far from guaranteed. In this blog, Ben Buckland from the Association for the Prevention of Torture examines the elements of financial independence for NPMs, and trends and […]

Ben Buckland16th August 2022

Public opinion: barrier to death penalty abolition?

Global Prison Trends 2022 details progress and setbacks towards abolition of the death penalty over the past year. In the second expert blog of our series examining trends identified in the report, Mai Sato, Director of Eleos Justice at Monash University, considers the role of public opinion as a barrier to abolition and dispells common objections. […]

Mai Sato2nd August 2022

More prisons, further away: a closer look at the expanding global prison estate

This article was edited on 25 July 2022 to add the editor’s note marked *.  Global Prison Trends 2022 highlighted significant investment in new or expanding prison facilities in many countries, often as a result of rising prison populations and corresponding prison overcrowding, with new prison constructions increasing in scale as well as geographical remoteness. […]

Edith Riegler6th July 2022

A rare assessment of the penal system in North Korea

Due to extreme secrecy and opacity in official information, very little is known about the penal system in North Korea. As the Human Rights Council considers the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the European Parliament condemns the human rights situation in […]

Hae Ju Kang20th April 2022

What can funders do to better support incarcerated women and girls?

As a minority in national prison populations, women are often at a disadvantage compared to men in prison, with few prisons meeting their basic needs or adequately preparing them for release or reintegration. Women have also faced increased hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of changes to prison regimes that fail to account […]

Isabella Cordua and Sabrina Mahtani1st March 2022

End-of-life care in prisons

The number of older people in prison has been rising in many countries. Their health and social care requirements are not always compatible with prison regimes and infrastructure. In this blog, Lynn Saunders, former governor of HMP Whatton in England, describes some of the challenges in providing health care to older persons in prison, including […]

Lynn Saunders21st February 2022

10 años despues, “Yo tengo algo que decir”: Las niñas, niños y adolescentes con referentes adultos privados de libertad alzan su voz

Read this blog in English Las niñas, niños y adolescentes (NNA) con un progenitor o un referente adulto privado de libertad[1]continúan siendo las víctimas olvidadas del encarcelamiento. Sus derechos y bienestar se ven afectados en cada una de las etapas del proceso penal de su familiar aunque a menudo esto no es tenido en cuenta […]

Lía Fernández10th February 2022

A Social Service of Great Importance: Recognising the role of prison staff in rehabilitation

PRI has recognised that prison staff – including prison, correctional and detention officers – are key actors in the successful rehabilitation of people in prison around the world. Positive relations between people in prison and prison officers are crucial in encouraging pro-social behaviour, fostering an environment of respect, and generally creating safer conditions for the […]

Abbey Bertelsen18th January 2022