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
‘Imprisonment is appropriate, fair and just for certain offenders; it is not for others, particularly first and non violent offenders involved in petty or victimless crimes.’ These are not the words of a prison reformer but of Tanzania’s Chief Justice, the Hon. Mohamed Chande Othman, who opened a PRI sponsored international conference in Dar es […]
7th November 2013
According to the World Prison Brief, Uganda’s prisons are currently operating at over 200% of their official capacity. Overcrowding in prisons is one of the most serious challenges facing prison systems across Africa and in many other countries. Its effects can be life-threatening – contributing to the spread of infectious disease, increasing violence and levels of […]
6th November 2013
On 9-10 October, three representatives of PRI – Nikhil Roy, Jenny Clarkin and myself – attended the first ever World Congress on Probation. Organised by the European Organisation for Probation (CEP) and hosted in London, the Congress welcomed over 300 delegates from 50 countries. It was a packed agenda and even documenting the highlights here […]
11th October 2013
Responding to an invitation to participate in the 33rd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators (APCCA), from the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, I arrived in New Delhi on the morning of Tuesday 24th October in time for the formal opening of the Conference. The opening session included a […]
3rd 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
Laura W. Murphy, Director, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Washington Legislative Office & Vanita Gupta, Center for Justice respond to US Attorney General’s call for major criminal justice reform, including an end to mandatory minimums for certain low-level, non-violent drug offences. Attorney General Eric Holder just called mass incarceration a moral and economic failure. He just […]
14th August 2013
A national strike by Kenya’s teachers has not prevented more than fifteen school heads and deputy heads taking part in PRI’s latest training seminars designed to promote alternatives to prison in East Africa. Schools are among the wide range of institutions where offenders sentenced to Community Service Orders (CSOs) undertake unpaid work for the benefit […]
3rd July 2013
Last month former Guardian journalist Malcolm Dean helped to train 25 journalists in Kazakhstan on current issues in criminal justice reform, the current situation in Kazakhstan’s prisons, strategies for good journalism and successful techniques for bringing criminal justice and human rights to public attention. It came as a shock to learn that only a few […]
4th April 2013