Blog

Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Study of Women Facing the Death Penalty

Photo: Alice Nungu by Tom Short  Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty. To mark the day, Delphine Lourtau and Sharon Pia Hickey of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide discuss the Center’s recent report, Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Study on Women Facing the Death Penalty, which found that most women are sentenced to death […]

Delphine Lourtau and Sharon Pia Hickey10th October 2018

Global Prison Trends 2018: a global view on the state of prisons

PRI has launched its annual flagship publication, Global Prison Trends 2018. Here we publish the foreword to the report, written by the Rt Hon Helen Clark, a Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Every year, Global Prison Trends by […]

Rt Hon Helen Clark15th May 2018

The Sustainable Development Goals: making sure female offenders are not ‘left behind’

Educational opportunities and rehabilitation programmes that take the specific needs of women into account are needed in Uganda in order to break the cycles of poverty among women and ensure that they are not left behind, says PRI’s Africa Programme Manager Doreen N Kyazze. There is a growing number of women and girls entering the criminal justice system […]

Doreen N Kyazze22nd February 2018

Eliminating violence against women in the criminal justice system

This Saturday 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The date was designated by the United Nations in 1999, but, almost 20 years on, we see that violence against women is as prevalent as ever – and particularly so for women caught up in criminal justice systems. In this blog Harvey […]

Harvey Slade21st November 2017

Why are women prisoner numbers rising so rapidly?

Today, the fourth edition of the World Female Imprisonment List is published by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR). Catherine Heard, Director of the ICPR’s World Prison Research Programme, discusses the latest data. This week at ICPR we release the most comprehensive global dataset ever produced on women prisoner numbers. The fourth edition of […]

Catherine Heard9th November 2017

Why a gender-sensitive approach is needed: a Probation Director’s perspective

PRI talked to Paul King’e, County Probation Director in Nakuru, Kenya, to find out how a gender-sensitive approach to community-based programmes can help female offenders in Kenya.  Tell us about your role within the Kenya Probation Service. I serve as the Nakuru County Probation Director charged with the responsibility of coordinating the implementation and monitoring of all departmental […]

Paul K. King’e20th July 2017

Eight things to remember when implementing a gender-sensitive approach to probation

Throughout the world, probation systems and community-based sentences have been designed for men and by men. Little focus has been given to the differing needs and experiences of women, and therefore the processes, tools and guidance have not fairly or adequately served women offenders. Omar Phoenix Khan of Justice Focus evaluated PRI’s pilot project to […]

Omar Phoenix Khan17th July 2017

Security is not Safety: Gendered Harms in Women’s Prisons

Prisons – by definition – are secure institutions. Shifting philosophies of punishment underpin approaches to security and safety. The mobility, behaviour and activities of those imprisoned are controlled by carceral architecture and structured schedules with policy, practice and personnel reinforcing the custodial demands of imprisonment. Such procedures are designed to prevent escapes and maintain ‘control’ […]

Barbara Owen25th May 2017