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Penal Reform International recipient of the Open Society Foundations 2019 New Executive Fund
Open Society Foundations has awarded Penal Reform International’s Executive Director, Florian Irminger, a New Executives Fund, which will help implement a ‘vision of catalytic organisational change’. PRI joins an impressive list of other organisations with new leadership, from those protecting people with mental disabilities in Hungary to defending rights in the digital environment, and another […]
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Event: Trends and Efforts Addressing Life Imprisonment in the United States and Around the World
Event invitation: Tuesday, 15th of October 2019 Venue: Open Society Foundations, 224 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019 Refreshments at Noon, with the panel from 12:30-2pm Download the event flyer here. Penal Reform International’s Global Prison Trends 2019, published in collaboration with the Thailand Institute of Justice, found that prison populations continue to rise […]
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UN system must address concerns about growing number of individuals sentenced to life imprisonment
Oral Statement delivered by Professor Dirk Van Zyl Smit 28th session, United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 20 May 2018, Vienna On behalf of Penal Reform International I want to draw the attention to a form of punishment most often used worldwide to deal with the most serious crimes. This is not […]
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We are 30!
Over 30 years, we have had many successes, working in more than 90 countries. We are proud of our past achievements and look forward to the years ahead. We believe in what Nelson Mandela said: “No one really truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.” We believe that […]
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PRI to launch Global Prison Trends on 21 May 2019
Alongside the Thailand Institute for Justice, PRI will launch the fifth edition of Global Prison Trends on Wednesday 21 May 2019, at the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Global Prison Trends outlines key developments and trends in the use and management of imprisonment worldwide. In 2019, the 52-page report will also contain […]
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Administration of justice: Violence, death and serious injury in situations of deprivation of liberty
Alongside the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in Vienna, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and Open Society Justice Initiative, PRI will be hosting an event titled Human Rights in the Administration of Justice, at the upcoming United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and […]
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Reconstructing the Central African Republic will require a fair and effective criminal justice system
In the current context of extreme instability and volatility in the Central African Republic where the United Nations local presence has even reported ‘chronical violence targeted at civilians’; the Central African Republic government has approved a strategy which aims to demilitarise the country’s penitentiary system. On 9 January 2019, Prime Minister Simplice Sarandji endorsed three policy […]
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The right to hope: PRI co-hosts international strategy forum on life imprisonment
This week, Penal Reform International and the University of Nottingham organised an international civil society strategy forum on life imprisonment, which took place in London from 11–12 December 2018. The two-day forum brought together key civil society actors (alongside stakeholders from academic institutions) from around the world to discuss and strategise how to tackle the […]
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PRI hosts first regional conference on combatting violent extremism and radicalisation in prison
Last week, PRI’s Central Asia office hosted a regional conference bringing together representatives from five countries to share experiences on effective prison management of violent extremism offenders. Data shows that the number of those convicted of violent extremist and terrorist crimes is growing, and there are concerns in some Central Asian countries that prisons have served as […]
PRI and ODIHR to organise briefing at UN General Assembly on Nelson Mandela Rules
On the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, PRI and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will co-host a breakfast briefing in which an expert panel will review current trends and developments in prisons, including the implementation of the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the […]