Who are we?
The information site on prisons throughout the world
Switzerland: only the sound of the locks
Inside Outside
20 February 2019. "There are days when the latches open so violently that left us with the eyes half-open in a state of shock. Where am I?"
Inma reacts to Bertrand Gaudillère's photograoh about the sense of hearing.
France: from the pen to the polls
Interview
19 February 2019. Most prisoners have the right to vote. But incarceration prevents many of them from exercising this right. An initiative is being launched in order to fix the situation. François Korber, co-founder of the leading organisation Robin des Lois, has agreed to answer Prison Insider's questions.
Lebanon: and so, the days go on
testimonial
15 February 2019. Hussein has been incarcerated for the past seven years. "I learned how to paint with a very specific kind of paint: it is made from rubbish, vegetables, and cleaning products. The paint is my creation." He tells Prison Insider what a typical day in prison is like.
They are talking about it
Testimonials
Recently
News
France : "c'est une prison sans barreaux"
Source — France Culture
USA: One of America's harshest isolation units was exposed by a desperate, handwritten account from the inside
Source — NBC
USA: Gangs, lack of guards spark teen riot at understaffed Texas juvenile prison
Source — Houston Chronicle
Turkey: les peines de prison de journalistes du quotidien d’opposition Cumhuriyet confirmées en appel
Source — Le Monde
Recently
You may have missed...
France: on parole, but still in prison
testimonial
14 February 2019. "A part of us is a person on the outside. A person ...not just an inmate number..." Mickaël is serving his sentence as a parolee in Douai. He and six fellow inmates discuss their impressions and feelings.
United States: do you hear the sound of silence?
inside outside
12 February 2019. "The sounds of the sea escape us. The calls of the birds fall on deaf ears."
Read Tewhan's reaction to Bertrand Gaudillère's photograph about hearing.
Who is to speak for the sense of hearing?
inside outside
12 February 2019. We have asked some prisoners, which countries, walls, and cultures separate, to talk -from Bertrand Gaudillère’s images- about their perception of hearing.
First answers.
Argentina: we can only hear the water
inside outside
12 february 2019. "In the morning, you can only hear the sound of the shower, that is if someone is taking one, or the sound of the whistling kettle when the water is boiling."
Read Pablo's reaction to Bertrand Gaudillère's photograph about hearing.
Cosmin Bumbut
Romania
Stephen Tourlentes
United States of America
Augustin Le Gall
Tunisia
Fernando Moleres
Sierra Leone
Sebastien van Malleghem
Belgium
Carlos Hernandez
Venezuela
Seyi Rhodes, reporter
Haiti
Pierre Duvert
Madagascar
Irina Popova
Belarus
Nathalie Mohadjer
Burundi
Grégoire Korganow
France
Andrew Aitchison
United Kingdom
Virginie de Galzain
Madagascar
Fernando Moleres
Sierra Leone
Sarah Bones
United States of America
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.
The Franklin Masacre survivors
Carlos Hernandez photographed the men who survived Franklin Masacre’s reign over the General Penitentiary of Venezuela.
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.
Prisons of Madagascar
“Overcrowding, the stench of urine as soon as you cross the threshold, rats and vermin everywhere…” Virginie de Galzain
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.
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.
