Explore
Middle East
Material conditions
Facilities
Turkey
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
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Europe
Overcrowding
Hungary
“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
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Europe
Health
Ireland
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
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Europe
Justice
Bosnia & Herzegovina
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
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Australia: Queensland judge to receive apology after department refused to detail confinement of boy
News
Minors
Oceania
Justice
Australia
The public servant in charge of Queensland’s youth detention system has apologised for a government department’s refusal to provide the children’s court with information related to the prolonged solitary confinement of a boy, 13, with developmental disorders.
The judgment, reported by Guardian Aust…
Source — The Guardian
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Oceania
Mental health
Australia
Prisons are ungodly beasts – hard to understand for the average incarcerated soul, impossible to comprehend for neurodiverse people, who don’t process the world as the majority do.
In my experience, people come out of prisons in worse condition than they went in.
This is most certainly true of 40-y…
Source — The Age
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Germany: neither incarcerated nor free
Interview
Problems of substance
Analysis
Comparative study
North America
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Many people are living with addiction in prison. They face great difficulties. Drugs are an integral part of the overcrowded and unsanitary prison systems, which increases the risks inherent in drug use. How is drug addiction experienced behind bars?
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Belgium: a tough journey
Interview
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Belgium
Prisons often act as a conduit for worsening drug use, yet prisoners are confronted with numerous barriers when trying to access help.Ambulatoire Forest discussed its psychosocial support programme specifically designed for offenders struggling with substance use.
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Switzerland: detect, treat and support
Interview
France: beyond the stigma
Interview
Europe
Discipline
Health
Mental health
Drugs
France
They are banned, but present nonetheless; denying the presence of illicit substances inside prison walls is dangerous from a medical and health point of view. Doctors of the World explained its approach.
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France: drugs in prison, an open secret
Interview
Madagascar: "everything is heavy and dark here"
Testimonial
Africa
Discipline
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Madagascar
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”.
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France: "It's a topsy-turvy world"
Testimonial
France: on camera
Interview
Central America and the Caribbean
Activities
Rehabilitation
France
Basse-Terre prison in Guadeloupe provides prisoner rehabilitation programmes. Film director Mark Alexandre Montout visited the prison to film a cookery competition. Interview.
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Ukraine: 107 Mothers
Interview
Central America and the Caribbean
Justice
Nicaragua
Nicaragua released 222 political prisoners, including an American citizen, in a deal negotiated with Washington that marks one of the biggest prisoner releases ever involving the United States, according to senior Biden administration officials.
The Nicaraguan government, which sought nothing in re…
Source — The New York Times
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Asia
Material conditions
India
To provide therapeutic treatment to prisoners suffering from neuro and lifestyle disorders, the authorities of Berhampur circle jail have set up a physiotherapy unit inside the prison. Several essential equipment required to run the unit have been procured from the donation provided by a physiother…
Source — The Times of India
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Asia
Material conditions
India
As many as 163 prisoners in Ajmer Central Jail have now turned literate, and 62 of them have started studying. Postcards are made available to prisoners to write regularly to their families and share their feelings with them.
“Many prisoners who came to this jail were illiterate, but now they are r…
Source — The Times of India
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Africa
Access to legal rights
Torture
Violence
Egypt
A new prison which Egypt touted as a model for reform and which holds some of its most prominent prisoners denies inmates healthcare and subjects them to punitive treatment including isolation, relatives of those inside and rights groups say.
Four prisoners died at the Badr facility because of medi…
Source — Reuters
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Middle East
Justice
Material conditions
Turkey
The families of prisoners held in the provinces of southeastern Turkey hit by a deadly February 6 earthquake have called on the Ministry of Justice for the conditional release of their family members, the Gazete Duvar news website reported.
Haluk Çavuşoğlu, chairman of the Fair Life Association, fo…
Source — Stockholm Center for Freedom
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Russia: prisoners of the battlefield
Interview
Europe
Violence
Russia
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 about this recruitment campaign.
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Middle East
Facilities
Syria
At least twenty prisoners, believed to be jihadi militants, have escaped from a prison in Syria. The escape was enabled by the recent earthquake that damaged the prison, a source at the facility told Agence-France Presse.
Known as the “Black Prison” the military police prison was located in the tow…
Source — The Independent
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Europe
Torture
Violence
Poland
The report, published on Tuesday by the office of Poland’s commission for human rights, a state body, was written by the National Torture Prevention Mechanism (KMPT), which operates within the commissioner’s office.
KMPT alleges that inmates were dragged out of their cells and brought to unmonitore…
Source — Notes from Poland
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