Who are we?
The information site on prisons throughout the world
France: drugs in prison, an open secret
Just 3 questions
9 March 2023. A way for prisoners to cope with their sentence and a way for the administration to contain the prison population: is the circulation of drugs in everyone's interest? Solenn Lebret-Dallaserra answered our questions.
Problems of substance: living with addiction in prison
Thematic paper
9 March 2023. Many people are living with addiction in prison. They face great difficulties. How is drug addiction experienced behind bars? Perspectives on practices in Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland and Moldova.
Switzerland: detect, treat and support
Just 3 questions
9 March 2023. The risk of transmitting and contracting sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections is particularly high in prisons. However, there are solutions to prevent their spread and to support those affected. 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
Turkey: Inmates in Kütahya province provided two hours of water
The Parmakören T-type prison, a newly built prison complex, provides running water for only two hours a day. Families have expressed outrage, saying inmates are unable to shower, clean their cells, use the toilet or even wash their dishes. “Prison authorities need to find an immediate solution to t…Source — Stockholm Center for Freedom
Hungary: There have never been so many behind bars
“One day, the guards came in and told me to pack my bags because they were taking me to another prison – on the other side of the country. I couldn’t understand why. I heard back later that it was because of the overcrowding in the prisons. But where I went, it was even worse, there were more of us…Source — Atlatszo.hu
Ireland: Prisoners to be given access to fertility treatment
Senator Mary Seery Kearney spoke with prison officials in recent days after receiving a number of queries from members of the public. She said a scheme, which will be part of the Assisted Reproduction Bill, will allow prisoners to take part in fertility treatment and the service will be available t…Source — The Irish Examiner
Bosnia: Commuting a prison sentence into a fine is possible in Republika Srpska
The draft amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska (RS), which stipulates that a prison sentence of up to one year can be paid off by anyone, if they wish, instead of it being decided by a court, should be presented to the members of the National Assembly of RS (NARS) at the next ses…Source — Sarajevo Times
Recently
You may have missed...
Ukraine: 107 Mothers
Just 3 questions
24 February 2023. Between 2016 and 2020, filmmaker Peter Kerekes visited Odessa Prison close to 120 times to shoot the film 107 Mothers. Odessa was one of a handful of Ukrainian prisons that allow mothers to serve their sentence with their children. Interview.
Russia: prisoners of the battlefield
Just 3 questions
15 February 2023. The conflict in Ukraine also impacts the individuals incarcerated in Russia. Many of them have been recruited by the Wagner Group over the past few months to participate in the fighting. Dmitry Gurin from EPLN shared with us what they know.
Canada: bringing law into prisons
Just 3 questions
7 February 2023. Philippe Bensimon and Mélanie Martel participated in writing the book Droit carcéral et gestion des peines. What makes this tool necessary? What are the issues concerning the respect of prisoners’ rights in Canada today? Interview.
USA: the Holmesburg experiments
Conversations
24 January 2023. Allen M. Hornblum, author of "Acres of Skin", tells us about the Holmesburg Prison Experiments. What makes prisoners particularly vulnerable to these forms of abuse? What impact have they had on prison practices today? Our conversation.
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.