Resources listing

Briefing

Short Guide to the Nelson Mandela Rules (revised Standard Minimum Rules)

This Short Guide summarises the 122 Rules of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which were revised by the UN in 2015. The Guide, which outlines the minimum standards that should be applied in prisons from admission to release, will be useful for policy-makers developing national prison management standards and guidelines and […]

Languages: Amharic, English, French, Georgian, Haitian Creole, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Thai

Multimedia

Podcast: Nourish – thinking about food in prison

In many countries, prison food is insufficient in quantity and quality. Budgets are low (less than 0.5 USD per prisoner per day according to data recently gathered by PRI) and there have been cases where prisoners have died from starvation. In higher-income countries, food is more available but still may not be ‘of nutritional value […]

Languages: English

International Standard

UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules)

The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRs) were initially adopted by the UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1955, and approved by the UN Economic and Social Council in 1957.  The Nelson Mandela Rules: an animated introduction from Penal Reform International on Vimeo. […]

Languages: Uzbek, Arabic, Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Tajik

Multimedia

The Nelson Mandela Rules: an animated introduction

In this two-minute animation, we explain the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), what they include, and what they mean for prison management. Watch the animation in: Arabic Armenian: Правила Манделы -Краткое введение (Армянский) Georgian: მანდელას წესები – ანიმაციური მიმოხილვა Portuguese: As Regras de Nelson Mandela: uma introdução – with thanks […]

Languages: English

Multimedia

Podcast: No prison is an island – the role of civil society in post-conflict penal reform

Restoring the justice and prison systems back to working order is an essential and often urgent task for post-conflict states. In this expert blog for PRI, Terry Hackett, Warden of Pacific Institution in British Columbia (BC), Canada, draws on his recent research into civil society action in justice and correctional reform in Rwanda after the […]

Languages: English

Multimedia

Podcast: Preventing infectious diseases in prisons: a public health and human rights imperative

The spread of infectious diseases is a serious problem in prison systems worldwide, with prisoners often many times more likely to be living with Tuberculosis, HIV or hepatitis than a person in the community. Alongside the generally poor and unsanitary conditions prevalent in prisons, one major route to infection is unsafe injecting drug use. Yet […]

Languages: English

Report

Consolidated report on the National Preventive Mechanism of Kazakhstan 2014

In May, the National Preventive Mechanism of Kazakhstan and the Ombudsman’s Office launched their consolidated annual report for 2014. The NPM was established in law in July 2013 and started carrying out monitoring visits in Spring 2014. This report explains the development of the NPM and reports on conditions of detention in the institutions under […]

Languages: English, Russian

Submission

Submission to the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice

This submission responds to a call for information by the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice for their report on safety and security. Within this broad area of research, the UN Working Group stated they intend to address ‘equality and non-discrimination in the enjoyment of the […]

Languages: English

Multimedia

Podcast: Opening the steel door – how Colorado is reforming solitary confinement

Prisoners are put in solitary confinement – for days, and sometimes for months and years, in most countries. In the USA, the American Civil Liberties Union has estimated that some 80,000 prisoners are housed in some form of isolation. However, the dangers of solitary confinement are increasingly recognised. Not only to the mental health of the individual, […]

Languages: English

Annual Report

PRI Annual Report 2014

PRI’s Annual Report 2014 highlights achievements at both international and country level in our 25th anniversary year which ran from April 2014 to April 2015. The process of revising the text of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners was completed in April 2014 at the fourth intergovernmental expert group meeting […]

Languages: English