Who are we?
The information site on prisons throughout the world
Belgium: “prison isn’t a place for care”
3 questions to...
9 September 2021. Incarcerated people are often in worse physical and mental health than the general population. I.Care has been visiting prisons since 2015.
France: a deceptive protection
3 questions to...
9 September 2021. The proliferation of surveillance systems and an increased reliance on incarceration are meant to curb violence. But what are the implications of this kind of security? Françoise Vergès is a feminist, anti-racist author. Her most recent work denounces an unequal protection system.
Prison Fever, year II.
coronavirus
9th September 2021. The virus has not stopped at prison gates.
In 2021, Prison Insider continues its review of the consequences of the pandemic in prisons.
They are talking about it
Testimonials
Niger: the cost of living
Two prisoners attest to their conditions in overpopulated prisons. A way to survive: pay, every month, for access to better prison conditions.
No longer the product of my crime (but of my creativity)
“Being encased within steel and mortar shouldn’t alter the fundamental essence of a human being. Amid the brutality and apathy of the prison system, some find the ability to be creative” (Steeldoorstudios exposes the challenges of the creative process in prison.)
Switzerland: "in the evening, the shouting starts"
Georges was incarcerated for 12 months in the prison of Fribourg while awaiting sentencing. He recounts how a day in prison unfolds.
United States of America: night terrors in prison
Kyle H. has been incarcerated since 2001 and is serving a life sentence. He is held at River North Correctional Center in the state of Virginia. He bravely tells how an ordinary day goes by, when voices cannot stop, and when he becomes a stranger to himself.Recently
News
España : el último insumiso civil entra en prisión
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
Argentina: "Tu vida vale dos pastillas": amenazaron a una funcionaria que investiga a agentes del SPB
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
Colombia: cárcel de Bouwer, adjudicaron obra de ampliación en $ 563 millones
This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: Spanish
United States: seen in the press / 2021
Violence, acts of protest, prison conditions, justice reforms: find out what is new about prisons and justice in this country. Prison Insider monitors the press on a regular basis.Recently
You may have missed...
Australia: Ageing prisoners
1st July 2021 "If a prison setting becomes inhumane due to a person’s age-related physical or mental infirmity, it is necessary to consider alternatives."
Natasha Ginnivan discusses the ageing prison population in Australia.
USA: addressing the structural inequalities underlying a failing prison health system
24 June 2021. ""The criminal justice system is often used to respond to health problems in the U.S., such as substance use and mental illness."
Dr. Venters discusses the problems in prison health system in the United States and ways to address them.
Brazil: the vital work of the Public Defenders’ Office in a public health crisis
23 June 2021. "In thirty years, poor living standards in prisons have become a humanitarian disaster. Human rights violations of all kinds are found"
Patrick Cacicedo reflects on the work of the Public Defenders’ Officeg and the alarming situation of Brazilian prisons during the current health crisis.
Brazil: an obstacle course for prisoners' families
23 June 2021. "Every prosecutor and every judge should do an internship in a prison so they know what they are doing to the young people sent there."
Maria Teresa dos Santos is the chair of the Associação de Amigos e Familiares de Pessoas em Privação de Liberdade in the state of Minas Gerais. Prison Insider has interviewed her in September 2020.
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
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.
