PRI Board Member and member of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Justice Imman Ali, outlines the problems facing women prisoners and children in Bangladeshi prisons and calls for the best interests of the child to be paramount when considering the sentencing of the parent. The situation in the prisons of Bangladesh is overcrowded beyond all proportions. […]
1st April 2016
Last week, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and Penal Reform International jointly organised a workshop in Kampala for 23 judges and members of the Judicial Studies Institute. The workshop sought to raise judges’ awareness of provisions regarding non-custodial measures in the UN Bangkok Rules. The participating judges were working in magistrates courts which means they […]
18th March 2016
From 3-5 February 2016, six NGOs from Uganda and Kenya participated in an exchange visit organised and hosted by the African Prisons Project (APP) in partnership with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI). The participants visited and interacted with prisoners and prison staff making a difference in women’s prisons in Uganda with the support from […]
4th March 2016
If you want to know how many people are in prison in the Seychelles, your luck is in. Today sees the latest edition of the World Prison Population List compiled by Roy Walmsley. Roy started to produce the essential resource when he worked in the Home Office. The UK government decided to stop publishing it […]
3rd February 2016
Historically prison buildings have largely been designed for the majority male prisoner population. However, the growing understanding that women who offend are different from men − from their typical backgrounds and the nature of their offences, to their experience of abuse and their care-taking responsibilities is also leading architects and planners to consider how prison facilities might also be designed […]
9th December 2015
What happens to children in Uganda when their parents or caregivers are imprisoned? Who are they? How many are they? Where do they live? Are they still be able to attend school? Who cares for them in the absence of their parents? Does the criminal justice system take their existence into account when sentencing their […]
1st December 2015
Women have a number of difficulties when they come to face to face with the legal system in Sierra Leone. Their low levels of education and literacy make seemingly simple things − understanding a charge or signing a confession − extremely problematic. Women were also among the vulnerable groups that fared worst under the state of emergency measures brought in to […]
7th August 2015
Around the world, attempts at controlling the use and sale of drugs through criminal sanctions have resulted in extreme levels of incarceration for drug-related offences, serious overcrowding in prisons, deterioration of prison conditions, increased violence inside and outside prison, and depleted resources available for rehabilitation, education or treatment. In Latin America, for example, nearly a third of all detainees […]
24th April 2015
Research from around the globe shows that a high number of women in prison have experienced violence in their lives prior to prison and that it is an indirect or direct cause of offending. PRI’s Programme Officer, Olivia Rope, says that the five years on since the adoption of the UN Bangkok Rules it is […]
23rd April 2015
On 25 February, PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, took part in a UN High Level General Assembly Thematic Debate on Integrating Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The aim of the discussion was to tackle the challenges for sustainable development posed by transnational crime organised crime, illicit trafficking and corruption. Most speakers […]
4th March 2015