Who are we?
The information site on prisons throughout the world
“We wanted a seat at the table, so we created our own”
Just 3 questions
2 June 2023. In March 2023, formerly incarcerated people from around the globe met at the Incarceration Nations Network (INN) hub in Cape Town for the first edition of the Global Freedom Fellowship. Khalil Chait, who spent 10 years in prison in the Netherlands, was one of them. Interview.
Ireland: adverse motherhood experience
just 3 questions
31 May 2023. The number of women incarcerated throughout the world is steadily increasing. Many of these are mothers. What is the impact of mothers' imprisonment? The IPRT recently examined the experiences of mothers imprisoned in Ireland and of their children. Interview.
USA: disaster in prison
just 3 questions
16 May 2023. J. Carlee Purdum is the director of the Prisons and Disasters Risk Network, which aims to inform the public about the growing impact of disasters on prisoners. She discusses with us how prison labour is embedded in emergency disaster response. Interview.
They are talking about it
Testimonials
Madagascar: "everything is heavy and dark here"
Paul Rafanoharana Maillot writes to us from Tsiafahy prison, a facility notorious for its overcrowding and inhumane conditions. He has been incarcerated since 4 August 2021 and is being kept in solitary confinement. He tells us about the “prison within the prison”.
France: "It's a topsy-turvy world"
In January 2023, Raphaël M. was placed in a halfway house in Alsace. Five years earlier, he had been in the Strasbourg prison. He shares what he went through and his current experience. A two-part story.
Côte d'Ivoire: the price of freedom
David D. was imprisoned in the Abidjan prison (MACA) for 29 months, and he is still awaiting trial. This is a testimony of an arbitrary detention, amidst uncertainty and corruption.
Lebanon: using theatre as therapy in prison
Theatre comes to Lebanese prisons. Catharsis is an organisation that offers drama therapy workshops in prisons. Its director Zeina Daccache produced documentaries about three such projects that took place in prisons.Recently
News
North Korea: toddler, parents jailed for life after being caught with Bible
A two-year-old North Korean was sentenced to life in prison after officials found a Bible in the toddler’s parents’ possession, as the totalitarian regime continued to “execute” and “torture” religious worshippers. As many as 70,000 Christians are imprisoned in North Korea, according to a new Inter…Source — New York Post
Egypt: pretrial detention renewals by video
The Egyptian authorities have widely deployed a videoconference system since 2022 to remotely conduct pretrial detention hearings and permanently avoid bringing detainees to court in person, Human Rights Watch said today. The system is inherently abusive as it undermines detainees’ right to be brou…Source — Human Rights Watch
Fresh claims of violence, abuse in youth detention
The troubled Banksia Hill youth detention centre is facing fresh scrutiny amid allegations a girl was sexually harassed by custodial officers. Detainees at Banksia Hill and Casuarina Prison’s Unit 18 youth facility claim they have been subjected to excessive use of force, ongoing lockdowns, forced…Source — The Advocate
Brazil: prisons without guards offer inmates path to recovery
APAC, a Brazilian non-profit that advocates for better treatment of prisoners, has a unique model in the dozens of facilities it manages across the country. Inmates oversee security and discipline, make their own food and wear their own clothes. Referred to as “recovering persons”, prisoners are ca…Source — Al Jazeera
Recently
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Is dynamic security a realistic utopia?
just 3 questions
15 May 2023. Dynamic security represents a new way of thinking about safety in which interpersonal relationships are fundamental. How does it contribute to easing tensions and preventing violence? Guillaume Brie answers our questions.
Côte d'Ivoire: a game-changing assist
just 3 questions
15 May 2023. Does sport improve living conditions and help prisoners reintegrate into society? That is the hope of the organisation La Balle aux Prisonniers (LaBAP). Its founders are convinced that sport can be a vehicle for social inclusion, integration and equal opportunity. Interview.
Building bridges through education
Just 3 questions
2 May 2023. Many initiatives are emerging as alternatives to the traditional prison, focusing on education rather than security. What is meant by education? How does it lead to change? Sergio Grossi answers our questions.
“Nine Circles of Hell”
report
24 April 2023. DIGNITY and a consortium of organisations report countless violations of human rights and international law committed between March and December 2022 in Ukrainian prisons under Russian occupation. Read their main findings.
Haitham Moussawi
Lebanon
Fernando Moleres
Sierra Leone
Virginie de Galzain
Madagascar
Carlos Hernandez
Venezuela
Sarah Bones
United States of America
Jérémie Jung
Latvia
Cosmin Bumbut
Romania
Stephen Tourlentes
United States of America
Augustin Le Gall
Tunisia
Fernando Moleres
Sierra Leone
Sebastien van Malleghem
Belgium
Seyi Rhodes, reporter
Haiti
Pierre Duvert
Madagascar
Irina Popova
Belarus
Nathalie Mohadjer
Burundi
Grégoire Korganow
France
Andrew Aitchison
United Kingdom
Lebanon’s prisons
In 2011, Lebanon had 24 prisons and Haitham Moussawi was the only Lebanese photographer to visit all of them.
Breaking the Circle
Minors released from prison have no access to reentry programs. Some go back to the streets and try to survive; others receive support from various organisations.
Prisons of Madagascar
“Overcrowding, the stench of urine as soon as you cross the threshold, rats and vermin everywhere…” Virginie de Galzain
The Franklin Masacre survivors
Carlos Hernandez photographed the men who survived Franklin Masacre’s reign over the General Penitentiary of Venezuela.
Story of Earl Reinhardt
While seeking out a subject for a report on aging detainees, Sarah Bones meets Earl, who has spent the past 50 of his 75 years behind bars.
Pāri mūriem
Behind the walls of the juvenile detention centre of Cēsis, the prisoners are getting bored. Jérémie Jung leads photography workshops with 10 of them but is confronted with censorship by the prison administration.
Camera intimă
Conjugal visits are allowed for prisoners and take place in private rooms, located inside the prison compound. Cosmin Bumbut photographed those places, when they were empty.
Of Lengths and Measures
When nights start to fall, prisons still glow on the outskirts of towns. Stephen Tourlentes unveils the architectural stigma of incarceration.
Cinema in prison
Four Tunisian prisons host screenings at a film festival. Augustin Le Gall, a photojournalist, brings back a sample of the wind of freedom that blew into Borj Erroumi prison.
Waiting for Justice
Children are incarcerated illegally in the maximum security prison of Pademba, in Sierra Leone. Fernando Moleres shares with us the daily lives of the minors in the Prison of Freetown.
Prisons
Being deprived of freedom causes extreme distress. The images by Sebastien van Malleghem denounce the archaic and opaque walls which enclose these men and women and their broken lives.
Forgotten prisoners
Prisoners are waiting. Most of them will never be judged because their files are missing. Many will die.
Seyi Rhodes, reporter, comments on photographs he has taken inside the Port-au-Prince prison.
Captured childhood
More than one million children are imprisonned throughout the world, according to UNICEF. In Madagascar, a large majority of them are yet to be judged.
Pierre Duvert captures their everyday life.
Welcome to LTP
In Belarus, people are locked up to wean them off alcohol. These are strange places where time seems to have stopped after the fall of Soviet Union.
The Dungeon
Children languishing in dark cells. They are victims of alleged arbitrary justice, and they spend years without seeing the inside of a courtroom.
Prisons
From 2011 to 2014, Grégoire Korganow went inside some 20 corrections facilities and photographed everything he saw: inside the cells, courtyard, visitation booths, showers, solitary confinement block, and more, by day and by night.
Prison Stories
The everyday lives of inmates, guards and visitors.