PRI has today published a new resource – Making Community Service Work: A Resource Pack from East Africa – which provides information and material about how community service has developed as an alternative to imprisonment in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Sentencing offenders to do unpaid work of public benefit has many advantages. It is cheaper and less harmful […]
In her article, The Living Death of Solitary Confinement, Lisa Guenther, an associate professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University (Tennessee), argues it is profoundly harmful for both prisoners and society to isolate people in units where they are neither allowed nor obliged to create and sustain meaningful, supportive relationships with others. The article trails Professor Guenther’s forthcoming book Social […]
(8 August 2012) A recent workshop of Public Monitoring Commissions in Kazakhstan facilitated by Penal Reform International (PRI) on 24-26 July has prompted an agitated debate in Kazakhstan about the role of these Commissions and the nature of an association coordinating their work. In the light of this discussion and criticism, which has also affected our organisation, […]
The United Nations Human Rights Committee held its 105th session in July and has made concluding observations that pre-trial detention is used too frequently, detainees are not informed of their rights or given quick enough access to doctors, lawyers or judges, and that prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. Our submission to the Country Report Task Force […]
On 24th to 26th July 2012, a meeting of Kazakhstan human rights defenders who specialise in monitoring prisons was hosted by Penal Reform International (PRI) at the Kegok Centre, near Astana. There are currently 13 public monitoring commissions in Kazakhstan with each group made up of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and academics. The Penal […]
Penal Reform International (PRI) has drafted two new working documents to support and facilitate the implementation of the UN Bangkok Rules. Until their adoption, standards had not properly reflected the specific needs of girls and women, with regard to both conditions of detention and alternatives to imprisonment. Since their adoption, a number of states have […]
On 2 July 2012, over 40 attendees representing parliament, NGOs, donors and partners gathered to celebrate the launch of two books by Dr Rani Dhavan Shankardass, Penal Reform International’s Honorary President and Secretary General of Penal Reform and Justice Association (PRAJA), India: Of Women ‘Inside’: Prison Voices from India and In Conflict and Custody: Therapeutic Counselling for […]
On 25-26 June 2012, PRI participated in an expert consultation at Harvard Law School with the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr Christof Heyns and the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Mr Juan Méndez. Other participants representing academia, lawyers, and NGOs included […]
At the annual session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Penal Reform International will promote the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders, their value and the need for their implementation by states. Should you be interested in the Report and Recommendations of the […]
Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Justice for Jordan, Khalifa Khalid Al-Sulaiman, PRI and the World Coalition against the Death Penalty opened the tenth General Assembly of the World Coalition. The General Assembly focused on the efforts and realities in the fight against the death penalty at the international level and in […]