February 2023
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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Asia
Protest
Myanmar (Burma)
On January 5 at around 11pm, four political prisoners were dragged from their cells in Pathein Prison and brutally beaten by prison authorities.
“They suddenly raided their rooms and found a mobile phone,” said Ko Kyaw Oo, a former political prisoner who now helps others in the Ayeyarwady Region ca…
Source — Frontier Myanmar
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Asia
Death penalty
Japan
At the January 27 press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, the lawyers insisted that executions in Japan are being carried out in a state of secrecy, both to the Japanese public and the outer world, and called for more debate on the matter and for…
Source — The Mainichi
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Central America and the Caribbean
Facilities
El Salvador
Miguel Montenegro, director of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, has warned of the “risks of violence” in a prison he said would likely end up being badly overcrowded.
“There will most likely be more than the announced capacity of 40,000,” considering that 63,000 presumed…
Source — France 24
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Canada: bringing law into prisons
Interview
France: "a change of tactics"
Interview
Europe
Justice
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Alternatives
France
In 2020, the French government was found to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights, due to demeaning detention conditions in French prisons. What is the state of affairs today? The National Human Rights Advisory Commission speaks on the issue.
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