Call for input: Violence and Health in Prison
As Secretariat of the Informal CSO Group on Health in Prison, Penal Reform International (PRI) is coordinating civil society input to inform an upcoming technical brief on violence and health in prison by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Please share any relevant research, initiatives, publications, or hyperlinks.
Email your responses to tlenihan@penalreform.org by 6 November 2023. Responses may be anonymous or attributed to you or your organisation.
In particular, we are seeking information on the following topics:
- The health impacts (including link to risk of HIV outbreaks) of:
- Prior experience of violence
- Staff-to-prisoner violence
- Inter-prisoner violence
- Sexual violence
- Gang violence
- Denial of medical treatment
- The impact on health and violence of:
- Prison overcrowding
- Low resource settings
- Access to food, water, hygiene, and other basic necessities
- The specific experience of vulnerable groups, including:
- Women
- LGBTQ+ persons
- Children (especially those housed with adults)
- People with mental illness
- Racialised groups
- What actions are needed for:
- Capacity-building for prison staff
- Support for healthcare staff to provide appropriate treatment
- Environmental factors (e.g. prison conditions)
- Structural factors (e.g. disclosure and complaints mechanisms)
- Other
- Please share any good practice examples linked to any of the above or related areas.