In 2007 Ashley Smith died in a segregation cell in Canada at the age of 19 by strangling herself while the correctional staff failed to intervene. In December 2013 an inquest ruled that Ashley’s death was a homicide and delivered 104 recommendations aimed at improving the operations and accountability of Canada’s correctional system, particularly in […]
6th February 2014
Professor Anthony Doob is one of the three-most cited scholars in Canada and one of the top 25 most-cited scholars worldwide. He is renowned for his insights into Canada’s youth justice system, sentencing and imprisonment and for his influence on policy. He will be giving a lecture at the University of Toronto on 6 February […]
5th February 2014
Every day about 20 news stories pop in my email inbox, giving the latest headlines from around the world on prison and penal issues. Over the past couple of days, these include: ‘Epidemic of self-mutilation’ in women’s prisons in England and Wales’ ‘Inmates need needle-exchange programs and better access to HIV treatment: study’ (Canada) ‘Anti-torture […]
18th December 2013
Today – Human Rights Day (10 December 2013) – is a chance for organisations around the world to draw attention to both the continuing violations of peoples’ rights and the positive steps being made in protecting and respecting them. So it is appropriate that today PRI is in Kolkata, India, conducting a training of trainers’ workshop […]
10th December 2013
‘Save money, protect society and realise youth potential’ is the apt title of a new white paper by the European Council for Juvenile Justice (ECJJ) and the International Juvenile Justice Observatory, which examines how the age of austerity could actually be an opportunity for governments to improve youth justice in Europe. The paper recommends focusing […]
23rd October 2013
Morocco’s Islamist-led government has unveiled a charter outlining a raft of long-awaited judicial reforms including a strengthening of the judiciary’s independence that have been a priority of the ruling party. The charter was presented late Thursday by the justice ministry, some two years after the kingdom adopted a new constitution in the face of sweeping […]
17th September 2013
Oliver Robertson, PRI’s new manager for our Death Penalty and Alternatives project, reports from a successful panel at the 24th session of the Human Rights Council on the rights of children of parents sentenced to death. ‘I do not think we will have any problems tomorrow” Francis told me ‘because we are talking about children, […]
16th September 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
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
Jo Honeybone reports from a vist to the Sahyog De-addiction Centre in Delhi where since it was founded in 2011, 300 children from 8 to 18 years have come for rehabilitation and vocational training. On 16th April, 15 participants attending the International Colloquium on Juvenile Justice in Delhi, India, visited the ‘Sahyog De-addiction Centre’ managed […]
27th March 2013